The Life and Times of Wyatt, Chris and Melinda
by Celestial Chaos
Summary: Basically an ongoing story revolving around Piper's three children and their growth, both magically and nonmagically. With demon attacks, wonky powers, love lives and dealing with family, these three go through just about everything...and then some!
1. Chapter 1

Author's Notes: This is my other long going story I had written (and had just finished) around the time I came back to I figured I would wait to post it until I got everything else up and running. I still have another story to upload, but that's for a different genre; if you like the Elder Scrolls, you might like that story. Anyways!! This is a story I had a lot of fun writing, too. It's...pretty much just a chunk out of the lives of Wyatt, Chris and Melinda Halliwell (Hence the name!). I love Piper and her kids. It's a little different than my previous story. Like the other, I didn't know about the Book of Three when I wrote this, so I had a lot of liberty with my characters, and I basically came up with the following for them. As always, I don't own Charmed. And I'm pretty sure my ages are correct. I'm usually pretty anal about these kinds of things.

For all those who read my story 'Parallelism', I hope you like this one just as much! Don't forget to review :D

SET IN MID 2025 (May)  
PIPER born August 7th, 1973 – 51  
· WYATT born February 2nd, 2002 – 23 (All his powers)  
· CHRIS born May 16th, 2004 – 20 (Orbing, Telekinesis, Telekinetic Orbing)  
· MELINDA born 2007 – 18 (Molecular Immobilization, Combustion)  
PHOEBE born November 2nd, 1975 – 49  
· "LADYBUG" (Patty) born 2008 – 17 (Empathy, Feeling projection)  
· OTHER DAUGHTERS (Penny, Victoria) born 2010 and 2012 – 15 and 12 (Premonitions; Levitation and flight)  
PAIGE born August 2nd, 1977 – 47  
· HENRY JUNIOR born in 2009 – 16 (Telekinetic Orbing, sensing)  
· "THE TWINS" (JANICE, SAM) born in 2012 – 12 (Orbing, glamouring, astral projection)  
BILLIE born December 1st, 1987 – 37

* * *

"This is ridiculous." 

"No, it isn't. We've only been waiting for a few minutes. The demon'll be here, just wait."

Chris jerked his hand at his two bickering siblings in an attempt to keep the two of them quiet. Melinda almost seemed to argue with Wyatt more than she did with him, something that never ceased to surprise him. Now wasn't the time to listen to them, not with a demon on the loose.

"Did we really have to come to the park this late at night?" Melinda asked quietly.

"Yes," Chris said through slightly clenched teeth. That was the third time that night that she had asked that question, and he was getting sick of hearing it.

"I just—you _know_ I had plans with my friends, and—"

He couldn't take it anymore. Wyatt had his plans, but he canceled them. Chris had his own plans, too, but he canceled them. Melinda had griped about canceling hers more than enough. He didn't want to hear about it. "Mel, seriously, just stop it," he snapped. "You knew that toward the end of your senior year, we were gonna have to get you used to demon fighting. Mom's rules."

"I know that. But it doesn't mean that I have to be happy about it." The youngest Halliwell looked at her two brothers disdainfully. "I just want to blow the stupid thing up and get back home."

Wyatt, who had been quiet for a moment while he looked up at the cloudless, night summer sky, said, "Yeah, well, you're not the only one."

This almost seemed like some kind of chore for the two of them, Chris thought irritably. Sometimes he felt like he was the only one that took things seriously. He knew that he wasn't, though; even if Wyatt didn't always act like it, being a Charmed One was still very important to him.

It didn't explain why right now both him and Melinda were so into the idea of getting out so quickly. Maybe it was because they hadn't thought this demon to be much trouble. They had traced it here, and they knew that the reason why the trees, shrubs and flowers in the park were doing so poorly was because this particular demon had a taste for the nymphs that took care of them. Chris just wished that they had been able to catch it sooner, so that they could have prevented the unnecessary deaths.

There was a sudden rustling in the bushes not too far away from them. Chris turned his head around just in time to see a figure rush out and head right for them. His immediate reaction was to try and orb away, but before he was able to he felt an impact as whatever it was collided with him, knocking him onto his back. His attempts at orbing were thwarted with the thrashing of the thing on top of him, and he tried to cover his face.

"Get it off me!" he shouted, voice muffled by the crook of his arm.

Just before he felt the creature fly off of him, something hot, sticky and gross dripped on and over his arm, dripping onto his neck and collarbone. He didn't know what it was but it felt _disgusting_.

"Mel!" he heard Wyatt shout. Soon thereafter there was a growling sound, followed by a heavy thud. Wyatt had used his powers to telekinetically throw the demon into a nearby tree.

When Chris managed to get up onto his feet again he wiped at the glop of crap on his neck, flicking his fingers toward the ground. He looked up just in time to catch his sister blowing up the demon with a surprised sort of yelp. It exploded into a number of pieces, with some more of the goo that had dribbled on Chris spurting out and over the grass around them.

Piper's three kids stared at each other before regrouping together near the tree that they had been hiding by.

"Good job," Wyatt said. At the sight of his brother wiping at his neck, he asked, "What happened?"

"Looks like he got gooed," Melinda interjected. She smirked.

Chris furrowed his brow. "Haha, funny. I got gooed. The demon…drooled on me, or something. I'm not really sure. Whatever it is, it's gross, and it's warm. I need to get a shower."

"Thank God it's not me drenched in demon guts." Wyatt grinned at his little brother and patted him on the shoulder. Chris just snorted. "But now that I that's /I done and out of the way, let's get back home."

Suddenly, Mel asked, "Could one of you maybe orb me to Aunt Phoebe and Uncle Coop's? I was gonna hang out with Patty and Penny…"

Chris didn't really feel like doing it. Looking at his brother, Wyatt silently seemed to agree to it, and he clasped his sister's shoulder. "Yeah, Mel, I'll take you. Come on." In just a second's time the two of them were orbing away, leaving their middle sibling in the somewhat dark, cool air of the park.

He wiped at his neck again. There was a tingling sensation that made him keep thinking that there was still something there, but he knew that there wasn't. Nothing was coming off onto his fingers. As he orbed home he thought about how showering was sure to get rid of that feeling. This wasn't the first time that he had been hit with demon residue, and he was sure that it wasn't going to be the last.

Upon arriving in the foyer, Chris glanced at the grandfather clock to check the time. It seemed so much later than ten at night, but he wasn't really sure why. They had left for the park sometime after it had started getting dark, which had been close to around nine, he thought. Maybe he had been wrong.

Chris was on his way up the stairs when he saw his mother coming down them. Piper was dressed in her pajamas, and she had a small, half-gallon of ice cream in her hands, along with a spoon. She chuckled at her son.

"Get the demon?"

He glanced over his front, then to his mom with a disbelieving look on his face. "Can't you tell?"

Piper snorted. "Oh, you know I can. I was just teasing you. What's got you all up in a knot? Did the demon blow up on you?"

"Well, as a matter of fact, it did. And I'm heading up to get a shower now. This is seriously gross." Chris wrinkled up his nose.

"Yeah, you're right." Piper reached up and ruffled her son's hair. "Now get into the shower. You're stinky."

Chris stayed on the staircase and watched his mom step into the sitting room before he finally went upstairs. He half-expected Wyatt to orb into their room when he went inside. But, no, he probably had called his friends and let them know that he was just going to be late for their hanging out instead of not coming at all. There was nothing saying that he couldn't do the same himself, but he was kind of tired after the vanquishing. He could hang out with them later.

Clothes in hand, he headed into the bathroom, shut the door behind him, stripped down and stepped inside the shower. The hot water felt really nice, particularly on the spots where he had been slammed into the ground by the demon. Idly as he washed he wondered if he was ever going to get a power that would be able to vanquish like Wyatt and Melinda had. They both seemed to have a form of their mom's power of combustion, but only Mel had the ability to freeze. It seemed only fair—he and Wyatt could both orb. That gave her something unique, something that added to their Power of Three.

There was so much they had to plan out, he thought. With their sister graduating soon, they would be able to fully reconstitute the new Power of Three. He and Wyatt had been demon fighting on their own for nearly four years. And then there was that year or so where Wyatt had sort of done it by himself, going out with their mother and aunts…like he really needed the extra practice, anyways.

After about ten minutes Chris found that he couldn't be in the shower any longer. He stepped out to dry himself off, and he dressed himself in an undershirt and a pair of boxer briefs. Outside the bathroom, the manor was surprisingly warm, he noticed—warmer than it usually was. Yet still the hardwood floors of the hallway and his bedroom were nice and cool. He just hoped that it would stay that way.

He was hit with a sneak wave of tiredness upon climbing into bed. It was the first time that day that he had managed to just…sit, or in this case, lie down. Tomorrow, he decided, was going to be a break. Not just for him, but for Wyatt and Mel, too. They deserved it after all of the stuff that they had done that week. Sunday was going to be a day for them all to do whatever they wanted, and not have to worry about demons. The concept was pretty appealing, especially since this was the second time that month that he had to cancel on his friends. At the rate he was going, he wasn't going to _have_ any friends by the time of his birthday that following Saturday.

Yawning, the young Halliwell rolled over on his bed and looked at the door, whisking his hand in front of him to close it with his powers. He was too lazy to get up and do it himself.

It didn't take him long to fall asleep.

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When Chris awoke that morning it was to the sound of someone rustling around in his room. Somehow in the middle of the night he had pulled the covers up and over his head, and when he opened his eyes to see who it was, he was met with the thick, opaque fabric of his comforter. He twisted around inside of it for a second before he managed to get it up and over his head. He didn't even remember slipping under the covers in the first place.

The sight of who it was in his room sort of surprised him. "Mom?"

"Oh!"

Piper, who had been in the middle of taking off the comforter from Wyatt's bed, looked over her shoulder at her son. She looked a little spooked. "You scared me. I thought you were asleep."

"Well," he said, "I was. But I just woke up." Chris rubbed at his eyes, yawning. "What're you doing in here?"

"Came to get the laundry and bedding. You know the Sunday drill. Is all your laundry in your hamper?" Piper turned and took a seat on her eldest son's bed.

"I…think so." Chris moved to sit up and glanced over at the open closet door. There were clothes strewn all over the closet's floor, with some even hanging over the hamper itself. At least _some_ of them had made it into the hamper. "More or less," he added as an afterthought.

Piper snorted. "You two…I swear." She moved to get up, and in one solid swipe she had Chris' covers up and off of the bed. She rolled them up into a ball in her hands and stepped over to the closet, popping it into the hamper, with Chris stumbling around on the bed all the while.

"Jesus, Mom—"

"Language."

Chris rolled his eyes. "You could at least let me get some pants on first."

"It's not like I don't see you dressed like this every night when you go to bed, Chris." Piper tossed a few items of clothing into the hamper and then looked over her shoulder at her son with a small smirk on her face. She returned to her attention to the hamper and picked it up. "You need to get downstairs and get some breakfast before it's all gone and you have to eat cereal."

"Yeah, yeah…"

For a moment, Chris just stayed there on his bed, trying to brush off the sleepiness he was feeling. It usually didn't take him so long to wake up, and when he stood, he felt a little lightheaded. That hadn't happened before. Although he stumbled just a little it wasn't noticeable enough for Piper to say anything. Really, Chris was glad that she _hadn't _seen it. His mother had become more of a worrywart lately and he didn't want to deal with that so early in the morning.

He eventually wandered through the hallway and down the stairs into the kitchen where the rest of his family was. His father, Leo, had the newspaper in his hands and was reading it at the kitchen table, while Wyatt and Melinda were up and about the kitchen. Everyone was dressed besides him, which felt a little odd.

"Morning, sleepyhead," Wyatt said to him with a grin on his face. "You sleep okay? You were tossing and turning all night."

Chris shrugged in response and headed over to the island stove to dish himself up some of the left-over hash browns and pancakes. It wasn't until he sat down at the kitchen table that he realized he had forgotten to grab a fork and something to drink. He made a face.

"Mel, will you grab me a fork and some milk? I forgot to get them."

Mel, who was watching the small television kitty-cornered on the counter, barely gave her brother a look as she said with a snort, "Get it yourself!"

So much for kindness, he thought irritably. Chris got up from the kitchen table sort of groggily—why was he still feeling so off, he wondered—to pour himself his milk and to grab his fork. Everything was fine when he grabbed the _fork_, but when he went to shut the fridge with his hand after getting the milk it was as if someone had let off some kind of mini-bomb on the counter beside him. Everything underneath the cabinet atop the counter—the cookie jar, the toaster, the dish drainer—all went flying toward the wall. There was a horrendous mix of crashes, smashes and clanks as the ceramic cookie jar shattered and the toaster clanged into the wall.

Chris' immediate reaction was to duck his head and step back. He was thankful that he did so, because the shattered remnants of the cookie jar splayed all over the counter and onto the floor below as well. If he were still standing where he had been just a moment previous he would have surely been cut by a few of them.

Leo, Wyatt and Melinda all had similar reactions to what happened. He could feel all of their eyes on him. It made him turn red.

"Chris, what the hell was that?" Wyatt asked suddenly.

"I—I dunno," Chris spat out. He looked up and over at his brother by the kitchen table, noticing that his father had gotten up and was looking at him strangely, somewhat worriedly.

Right around this time Piper came into the kitchen with Chris and Wyatt's hamper in front of her. She stopped. The sight of all of them standing around was probably really odd. She didn't say anything at first, however.

"We're trying to figure out what just happened," Leo said in response to the look that was on his wife's face. "Chris was getting some milk, but there…Chris, what _did _happen?"

"I don't know," he said again. He put the gallon of milk on the island. "I was just…grabbing milk, like you said, and I went to shut the fridge door, and…boom—" he made an exploding motion with his hands, which caused a wave of telekinesis to wreak havoc. As he was facing his father this time it was all sent in his direction, and Chris watched in shock as his dad lifted right up off the ground, flying toward the wall behind the kitchen table.

"Chris!" Piper shouted. Her hands were up quicker than any of them noticed, and Leo was abruptly frozen in mid-air.

Chris didn't know what was going on. Before he knew it his brother was walking towards him, and put his hands on top of his younger brother's, slowly lowering them to face the floor.

"Let's…keep your hands there for now, Chris," he told him, at which point the flush in the younger one's cheeks seemed to nearly solidify.

"Don't—Wyatt—" Chris raised his hands again from under his brother's, but when he felt something weird happening inside of him, he paused immediately. There was no use in trying to argue.

He didn't know what to say.


	2. Chapter 2

Author's Notes: Voici chapter two! Don't forget to review :D

* * *

With his hands now carefully placed in front of him, Chris looked at each one of his family members, wondering what to say. Leo had been unfrozen by Piper, and the two of them were standing side by side, looking at their son. It was needless to say that he was feeling like he was being scrutinized. 

"He can't be getting some kind of power upgrade, can he?" Piper mused aloud. "Most of those come within a reasonable amount of time. He's had the same powers for years."

"It's not…entirely impossible," Leo furrowed his brow for a second. "It'd be really farfetched this late in the game, but you never know. I mean, look how yours evolved after a while."

"What do you mean?" Piper asked.

"You know. You started out being able to slow molecules down, and then you became able to speed them up. And shortly after Melinda was born, you were able to choose how fast and how slow you wanted them to move. You gained full manipulation."

"But that…" Piper reached up to scratch the side of her head. "Chris is almost twenty-one. He's had his powers since he was a baby. I hadn't even had mine for a decade."

"Does it matter?" Melinda asked out of the blue. It was the first time she had spoken in a bit, and Chris looked over at her.

"Magic works in mysterious ways, Mom," Wyatt chimed in with a small smile on his face. "You and Aunt Phoebe and Aunt Paige are always telling us that."

Chris cleared his throat. "I think you people are missing a really important part of this. These blasts aren't anything outside of what I'm _normally_ capable of. I've been able to do things like that for years."

"Yeah, but you _usually_ don't do that when you're trying to get some milk." Mel stepped around the island, sipping her glass of orange juice. "You made minced meat out of the cookie jar and the toaster. What did they do to you?"

This was just getting more and more irritating, Chris thought to himself. If it were an evolution in his powers, then there likely would have been some sort of progression. He had first learned to control his whitelighter powers, and his witch powers followed thereafter. _That_ was progression. _This_ was…well, he didn't know what the hell it was.

And today was supposed to be their day off, of all things. That just made it worse.

"Wyatt, why don't you orb up to the Elders and see if there isn't something going on with Chris' powers?" Leo reached up to brush his fingers under his nose.

Without a word, Wyatt nodded and orbed away, leaving the four of them in the kitchen. Piper walked over to her other son and looked over him, as if she were studying him. Chris looked at her somewhat awkwardly.

"We'll figure it out," she told him. Her hands reached out and took his. "We've been through things like this before. Don't worry too much. Remember when—"

"Yeah, Mom, when you got your powers," Chris said. His voice sounded aggravated at first but it quickly turned quieter, softer. There was no point in taking his anger out on her; she hadn't done anything.

"Don't worry about it." She patted his arm and smiled just a little. "You can help me with the laundry, come on. A little normalcy will do you some good."

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According to the Elders, Chris wasn't scheduled for a power upgrade. Not that it mattered. His powers seemed to be fine after that point, even after a few tests just to make sure. When he felt confident that they weren't going to bonkers on him he felt relaxed enough to go back to doing what he had planned for the day: resting. There was no school to worry about, no demons to worry about, and in truth, that gave him the opportunity to just…enjoy himself.

But Chris was quickly beginning to realize that he wasn't quite sure how to go about doing that. Having canceled on his friends the night previous, he wasn't at all surprised when none of them answered his phone calls. Granted, he only had two people to call—Chris was sort of picky on who he hung out with—so he decided against leaving messages and just left his phone in his room on vibrate. If they called, then they could leave a message. He at least made an effort.

Once they had squared away that Chris' issues with his powers were an isolated event, his parents decided to go out and run their errands. And with their day off, his brother and sister had left the house, too. It usually didn't happen often, him being in the manor by himself. At first he didn't really know what to do with himself. It wasn't until he went back into the kitchen that he noticed there was a list of things to be done that his mom had written up before she left. There apparently was laundry to fold and some dusting and straightening up to do, and despite the fact that he really didn't have anything to do, he…didn't much feel like doing that. Cleaning had never been something he cared for.

There had to be something to do, he thought.

Chris was walking through the dining room when he noticed a collection of white-blue orbs forming just off to the side in the conservatory. Soon thereafter stood his cousin, Henry. Like his parents, Henry had dark hair and somewhat pale skin, and he was sort of tall and gangly like his mother. He was just a couple years younger than Chris was, closer in age to both Melinda and their cousin, Patty. Still, Henry was the cousin he got along the best with, because he was the only other boy next to Wyatt.

And there were still some sibling issues involved there, even if Chris didn't want to think about that.

"Henry!"

"Chris!" Henry looked a little surprised. "Hey, dude. I was hoping you were here, actually."

"Oh yeah?"

"Yeah." Henry stepped into the dining room and gripped one of the chairs by the table. "Listen. Janice and Sam have a whole bunch of their friends still over from this…absolutely insane sleepover they had last night, and I couldn't be around a bunch of screaming thirteen year-olds anymore. So I thought I'd come by here and see if you, Wyatt or Mel were around and wanted to do something."

"Mel and Wyatt are out," Chris told him. "But I'm here, and I don't have anything going on. I was supposed to go out last night, but there was a demon we had to fight. The damn thing freaking _drooled_ on me." He rubbed his neck, which seemed to tingle and grow warm at the thought. The skin there felt just a bit drier than usual, but he didn't think much of it.

"You know, only about a year longer and I'll be able to help you guys. Then no demons should drool on you, cause we'll keep them all sufficiently distracted. And…wait, can't Patty help, too? Or doesn't she already?"

"Patty _should_ be able to now, but since most of the demons we've been going against lately don't really…_require_ empathy, she…hasn't been needed much." Chris didn't realize how bad that sounded until it came out of his mouth, and when it did he made a face. "Crap. Heh. Well, she's got that feeling projection, too, but you—"

"Yeah, it's cool. I know what you mean. Don't worry." Henry folded his arms over his chest, grinning slyly. "Just…don't let her hear you say that. Cause I think she might just kill you."

Chris laughed. "Her and Mel both. You know, Mel's more like a sister to her than she is to _me_. And I'm her brother. It's crazy."

"Yeah, well, I feel closer to you than I do to my sisters, so I guess it works. But!" He shrugged, "Enough chat about sisters. Ruins the day. What should we do? Wanna go see a movie?"

"A movie sounds pretty good," Chris said. "There's that new one out…I can't remember what it's called. But anyways, yeah. Let me just go grab my hoodie and my wallet and I'll meet you there, all right?"

"All right, cool. See you in a bit."

Henry orbed out of the dining room then, presumably to the alleyway behind the theatre that he, Chris and their siblings and cousins usually went to. He headed upstairs to grab his wallet, and then went back downstairs to grab his hoodie. Today was cooler than it usually was for a May afternoon, though for that, he was thankful. Fidgeting with his blue hoodie a bit before he locked the front door, Chris then focused on the alleyway behind the movie theatre, expecting himself to orb.

And orb he did, though it took a little longer than Chris had expected it to. On top of that, once he was actually in the air above the sitting room, he felt almost like he was_drunk_—dizzy, out of focus, and hazy. He hovered above the staircase for a minute before he felt himself losing control. With a thud Chris materialized, the momentum of his orbing causing him to hit the wall near the window. The shock of it paralyzed his body momentarily, and his body collapsed on the platform below it. It tumbled down to the hardwood floor below.

For a moment, he felt nothing. Then it all hit him like a ton of bricks, and Chris rolled over on the floor, groaning with a quiet whimper afterward. That had hurt a lot more than even being thrown against the wall by a demon and nearly choked to death, and that worried him. He slowly lifted himself up to a sitting position before he stood up and wobbled just a little. He was holding onto the banister when he saw orbs forming just in front of him.

It was Henry. "You coming, Chris?" he asked, looking a little confused at first. It turned to concern shortly thereafter at the sight of his cousin resting against the banister.

"Yeah, I'm fine. I just tripped and the banister caught my fall." Chris laughed as he pushed himself away. He still felt lightheaded and his body was throbbing. "I'm new to walking apparently."

"Come on, I'll orb us both. No worries." Henry reached out and clasped Chris' shoulder, and soon the two of them were orbing off to the theatre.

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"Chris…Chris. Come on. Wake up. You're gonna miss class."

Chris, curled up underneath his bed sheet and comforter, groaned quietly. Wyatt was shaking him, and coupled with the sound of his brother's voice, was enough to wake the younger one up to where he couldn't easily fall back asleep. Unlike usual, he woke up feeling tired, ill at ease and with a mild throbbing in his head that made him think he was going to get a headache.

"Chris. Damn it, come on. Mom'll kill you if you miss class! I'll meet you downstairs."

He didn't move until he heard the door shut behind him. Chris peeped his head up and out from beneath the covers, and he immediately regretted it. The sunlight pouring in hit him hard, and his eyes stung. He closed them and almost hissed from the pain. Wyatt could have at least shut the damn blinds. Now he was going to have a headache for sure.

That was the least of his worries at the moment. If he missed class again, he was for sure going to hear it from his mom, and so he slipped out of his bed and rubbed his hands up and down his face a few times. It always took him a bit to wake up in the morning so he didn't think much of that when he got dressed and headed down the stairs. And he certainly didn't know that he was looking worse for wear. But, when he stepped into the kitchen, Wyatt had no problem in letting him know that.

"Chris, you look like someone hit you with a two-by-four."

Chris' face fell and he glared near daggers at his brother. If they hadn't been alone in the kitchen, he probably would have tried to kill him. He was feeling overly sensitive for reasons he wasn't really sure of.

"Gee, thanks, Wyatt," he said flatly, heading for the fridge to grab himself the milk again, but slowly and carefully this time. He looked back at his brother who was over by the basement door. It was then that he caught sight of the time, and he nearly dropped the milk. "You couldn't have woken me up a little earlier? I've got like, five minutes!"

"What?" Wyatt looked up above him and at the clock. "I thought your class didn't start until ten?"

"No, _nine_," Chris corrected, voice coming out almost as a whine. He hurriedly placed the milk back in the fridge and turned around, feeling slightly woozy. He lifted a hand to his head, closed his eyes and took a slow, deep breath. This was the last thing that he needed right now…

Or dealing with a charge was. Somewhere in the recesses of his mind he heard a somewhat loud, urgent sounding yell of his name. He recognized the voice—it was one of his most recent charges, one that had had a lot of difficulty adjusting to the fact that they had a magic power. Why someone was after them now of _all_ times…not only was it annoying, but it was inconvenient.

"Damn it," he muttered.

Wyatt recognized that look, and he stared at his brother with his head cocked to the side. "Charge?"

Chris just nodded. "I've gotta get out of here."

But he hesitated as the memories of what had happened just yesterday when he tried to orb came back to him. He saw himself crash into the wall, fall down the stairs and land on the ground. The images were quickly broken by the increasingly loud cries of his charge. He _had_ to go. Wonky powers or not, they would straighten themselves out. They were gonna have to.

Unaware of the fact that his internal worry was beginning to show on his face, Chris focused on his charge, feeling himself begin to orb. The strange sensation from before came almost immediately, but he refused to let it affect him like it did before. The only thing that was different about this time was the fact that he couldn't feel himself moving. He was stationary, almost stuck in place. Until—

As if Wyatt had used his telekinesis on him, Chris felt his body suddenly jerk to the side. He materialized while simultaneously flying sideways with a slightly upward angle. Before he knew what happened he felt himself slam against the wall not too far away. He cried out both in surprise and pain, body giving way and falling onto the kitchen floor.

"Chris!" Wyatt was beside his brother in a moment's time, but he was hesitant to touch him. He didn't want to hurt him. "Chris—_God_—you okay?"

Chris responded with a sneeze that caused the nearby kitchen chair to fly across the room at the island and shatter. Both of them ducked.

Wyatt furrowed his brow worriedly.


	3. Chapter 3

Author's Notes: Here's chapter three! I had a lot of fun with emphatics in this chapter, so I hope I didn't miss any of my italic tags. I had this story designed first for a website, and it doesn't do automatic italics or anything, so I always have to mark it. If I forgot any, just lemme know. Sometimes my double checks don't always catch these things. As always, don't own 'em, and don't forget to review :D

* * *

"Damn it, Chris, what was that?" 

"I don't…nngh…I don't _know_," Chris muttered between somewhat gritted teeth. Pain was coursing through his body in ways that he hadn't felt in a long time. Slowly and carefully he scooted toward the wall, batting away his brother's hands that were trying to help stabilize him. "I'll be fine, Wyatt."

"No, you _won't_ be, Chris. Not unless we can—" Wyatt paused. Once Chris was resting against the wall the older one reached out and pointed at a strange looking patch of dry, purplish red skin on Chris' collarbone. "What is _that_, Chris?"

"What is _what_?"

"_That._ On your collarbone."

Wyatt continued pointing, which made Chris uncomfortable. Ignoring the pain for the time being he decided to look at what his brother was pointing at. How he hadn't noticed that odd patch of discolored skin he wasn't…really sure. All he knew was that it was news to him. Suddenly he was thinking that maybe it would have been a smart idea to let everyone know about what had happened to him the day before.

The pain that was racking his body had dulled the sound of his charge's cries in his head, but as it waned the cries became much more noticeable. They were going to have to deal with this later. If his charge was killed, Chris didn't know what he would do with himself.

He reached out to grip his brother's hand. "Wyatt, come on, my charge—I need your help. Orb me to her." He winced. "I can't let her die just because I can't figure out what the hell's the matter with me."

Even though Wyatt obviously wanted to argue about it, Chris was thankful that he didn't. With Wyatt's powers at the helm and Chris' mind focused on the charge, they were able to safely get to where she was. At first neither of them saw her, instead only heard her—she was still crying Chris' name aloud.

"Sophie!" the younger Halliwell called out. "Sophie, where are you?"

Chris looked frantically about in the parking garage that they had orbed into. He didn't recognize it, but he didn't really need to—all that he needed was to find his charge, and quickly. Out of the corner of his eye he noticed a figure darting out from behind one of the pillars, a figure that he instantly recognized as Sophie. Just behind her was a man, a man larger than either him or his brother, who was wearing black leather and boots. He was carrying a dagger in one hand and had a fireball formed in the other.

"Chris!" Sophie cried out again.

Without thinking about it Chris pointed his fingers at the dagger and tried to get it out of the demon's hand. Instead, though, the dagger went nowhere, and one of the halogen lights on the pillar not too far away cracked and exploded. Sophie screamed in surprise and darted off to the left, the opposite direction of where Chris' power had misaimed.

"_Damn_ it!" he cursed angrily.

The demon, although momentarily frozen because of the sudden explosion of glass, turned his attention away from Sophie and focused on Wyatt and Chris. Even though the darker haired one stepped forward first he felt a hand on his shoulder and was then pulled back. His brother took his place.

"I got this, Chris," he said, not even looking over his shoulder at his brother.

Despite himself, Chris didn't argue. He ignored the reignited pain in his body and headed over to an area with a few cars where Sophie had hidden.

Kneeling down beside her, he reached out and gripped her hand. "Sophie, are you okay?"

"God, Chris, he—he attacked me when I was trying to get into my car. I don't even know why." Sophie wasn't crying, but her voice was shaking, as was her body.

"It's okay," he reassured her. "Promise."

As Chris spoke, he saw the demon flying through the air not too far away from them. Wyatt flicked his hands in a move reminiscent of his sister and caused the demon to explode, the only remnants of it being an anguished cry that faded away quickly. With the threat sufficiently erased, Chris moved to his feet and helped Sophie up as well, leading her out and away from the parked cars and toward his brother.

Wyatt rubbed his hands together, and was looking a little smug. "Well, now that _he's_ been dealt with…"

Sophie brushed her fingers over her forehead. "Thank you. Thank you so much. I don't know what he was doing, he just…"

Chris shook his head. "No, it's okay, Soph. Don't worry about it."

"I wasn't expecting _both_ of you, though," she continued on. "I was only calling for you, Chris. Not that I'm complaining about the help, but!"

Though he was about to open his mouth and speak again, Wyatt cut him off. "Oh, uh…yeah. I was just coming along because we have something we have to do after this, and it was just easier."

There was no way she was going to believe that, Chris thought. No way. So, he was more than floored when she smiled.

"Oh. Well, thanks again. I really appreciate it."

"No problem." Wyatt clasped his brother's shoulder, who winced and groaned quietly, trying to hide his pain. "Come on Chris, let's get going."

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"Wyatt—Wyatt, damn it, listen to me, I—"

"Chris, I don't _care_. You're gonna sit right here on the couch and I'm gonna get Mom from the restaurant, and we're gonna figure this out."

Chris looked up from the couch at his older brother, almost scowling. Even though he understood why Wyatt was doing this, it didn't make him like it. He felt he was fully capable of getting things figured out himself.

That is, until he coughed, sneezed again and caused the nearby chair to tip backward and slide across the floor a few feet. Chris covered his mouth and sniffed. This was _embarrassing_.

"Be back in a little bit," Wyatt said.

Before Chris could object his brother orbed out of the living room, leaving him by himself. He rubbed his forehead and then ran his hands down his face, wondering what he was going to do. There was _something_ wrong with him, something that was beginning to affect his physical well being along with the magical. It was causing issues not only with him in general, but what he could do to take care of his charges. He needed to take care of himself.

Or…he needed his family to take care of him.

Even now, it was still sort of hard for Chris to let that happen. He was so used to being independent, used to relying on himself for things, that it was difficult to not try and solve this problem himself. He knew that he couldn't, though. Or could he?

Screw sitting here on the couch, Chris thought. He got up, fixed the chair and then headed into the kitchen. He wasn't in much pain anymore, thankfully, but he took an ibuprofen just to be on the safe side. Afterward he went up to the bathroom to check out the spot on his skin that Wyatt had pointed out. He couldn't see it very well by looking at it directly, and so when he stepped into the bathroom he flicked on the light, stepping toward the mirror. He gently tugged the collar of his shirt downward to reveal the patch of skin that Wyatt had pointed out.

Sure enough, the skin on his collarbone looked awkward, dark, and pretty unhealthy. It worried him a little, and for the first time in a while, he was also the tiniest bit scared. What if, from some crazy fluke, what had happened to him was unfixable? Then what was he going to do? His powers were going to deteriorate worse and worse until finally they…

Well, he didn't want to think about that.

It didn't _hurt_ to touch it, which perplexed him. Usually wounds like this gave off some sort of pain when poked and prodded. All that he felt, however, was the gross scaly feeling…similar to the—

"Oh my _God_," he said aloud. "Why didn't I realize this sooner?"

The demon that had attacked him had drooled on him there. That _had_ to be the answer. Chris ran through these thoughts in his mind as he worked his way up the stairs, eventually coming upon the _Book_. He flicked through its pages and tried his best to ignore the fact that the ibuprofen hadn't yet kicked in. Where was the page on the demon that they had gone to the park to fight?

"The Wendigo…Astral Echoes…Zombies…damn it, where is it? Ah!"

When Chris found the page with the nymph-killing demon on it, he looked over it carefully to see if there was anything on it that mentioned its saliva or its blood. Unfortunately, there wasn't, just like there was no spell or potion to vanquish it. It apparently didn't have much to it other than the fact that it was a low level spawn that liked killing nymphs for food. He hoped that there would be more about what it was capable of, because there was obviously more to it than its taste for magical creatures. If it could infect him like this…

Chris was so into what he was reading that he hadn't realized Wyatt and Piper had orbed into the attic. It wasn't until he heard his mother clearing his throat that he looked up from the _Book_. He blinked.

"Chris, what the hell are you doing up here?" Wyatt asked.

"I was checking out the _Book_," he stated. "This,"—his fingers came up to tug down the collar of his shirt again—"was caused my that damn demon we fought not too long ago. It's the only thing I can think of."

"That's what Mom and I thought. Or…actually, what Mom thought."

Chris looked confused. "Mom, how did you—"

"I've been at this for a long time, Chris. I think I know when someone's been poisoned. I just wasn't sure if the demon caused it, or if something else had." Piper stepped closer to the stand and her son. "There's a spell in the _Book_ that we can tweak a bit to fix it if Wyatt can't do it."

Wyatt moved closer to his brother then, bringing his hand up to hover it over the other's collarbone. The familiar golden glow appeared, but the discolored and dry skin didn't disappear.

"Part of me expected that," Piper said. "Demon poison is usually hard to counteract." Although Wyatt had healed her of a poison in the past, there were certainly some that could not be easily done away with. "Here, let me see…"

Both Chris and Wyatt moved aside to let their mother look at the _Book_. After a few moments of flipping through its pages she stopped, turning the stand to face her sons. At the top of the right page in curly letters read the phrase "To Counteract a Poison".

"I know Melinda is at school," Piper began, "but just to guarantee that this spell will work to its fullest, why don't you go get her, Wyatt?"

Wyatt only nodded before disappearing in the same familiar outbreak of orbs.

Shortly thereafter, Piper reached across the stand and brushed her fingers through Chris' hair. Without realizing it, he moved into it.

"You've got to stop letting them target you," she said to him. "You're not the only one fighting, Chris."

He knew that. Even if he didn't like admitting it to himself, he knew that. In a quiet voice, he said, "I didn't want it to hurt Mel. And I'm still not used to having her involved in this. She's only been helping us for a few months, and it's…"

"It's hard, I know." Piper pulled her hand back a little to pat the side of her son's face. "And it's sweet that you want to watch out for her like that. You're a good brother. She'll need to learn how to handle it, though. You won't always be there."

"I know."

"And Wyatt or your Aunt Paige can heal her."

"I know."

Piper smiled a little. "It took your Aunt Prue a while to learn how to deal with your Aunt Phoebe and I being out there on our own, too. Don't worry so much. She'll be okay."

Even though it felt repetitive, Chris responded with, "I know." And despite himself, he smiled some.

About that time Wyatt arrived back in the attic with Mel gripping onto his arm. With Wyatt's height it was kind of awkward, as Mel was shorter than both of her brothers, being about the same height as their mother. When they fully materialized they both walked over to the _Book_. All three of Piper's children reached up and joined hands while reciting the spell aloud:

"_Hear our call for those who fall…Purge him to awaken from this toxic take-in_."

A very strange golden glow similar to the one that came from healing magic appeared on Chris' body. The patch of discolored skin faded in its intensity until it matched his own somewhat pale complexion, and the dry flakes disappeared as well. As if someone had shot air through his nose, the haze within his head disappeared. Unfortunately, the pain from his stunt in the kitchen earlier that morning didn't.

Still, he felt much better than he had just a moment ago.

"Looks like it worked!" Mel said, patting her darker haired brother on the back. "Nice to have you back to full capacity."

"Thanks," Chris said, laughing some.

Maybe it wouldn't be so difficult to rely on his siblings every once in a while.

…Maybe.


	4. Chapter 4

Author's Notes: This chapter is just one of many more to come. Mwahaha. I thought about making the previous three chapters their own short story, but then I changed my mind and decided that it would be a background of the rest. And it worked well! So be sure to keep on reading ;-D And don't forget to review! Ah, yes, I don't own them btw. Alas.

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"I know it's around here somewhere…it's_got_ to be. Can't you feel its presence?"

But of course they couldn't. The demons—or rather, as decoys for possible attacks—that she had gathered to follow her for protection to the West Andes were nothing less than low-level demons, because nobody else had been willing to follow her on her mission. But she knew that what she was after was around here. It had to be. Every piece of history that she had been able to get her hands on, every demon that even knew remotely about it, they all had little bits and pieces that had fit together in a way that led her to where she was currently standing.

The demon Lilandra looked over the three men. None of them seemed particularly pleased to be there, but none of them said anything against it. She had the power to destroy them all if she wanted to. It was the only thing that was keeping them there—fear—of that she was sure. It was the universal power.

Still, that didn't matter. What mattered now was finding the _Grimoire._

"You," Lilandra said, pointing to the side, "look over there. And you two," she pointed to one of the other demons, "go look over there in that large icicle. I'm feeling something coming from there."

But the truth was, she wasn't. The place she was really feeling an emanation of power from—the nearby mound of snow—that was for her to explore. She didn't want any of the other demons happening upon the _Grimoire_. She couldn't trust them to give it to her if they found it. They were demons, after all.

She planned on killing them after she found it, anyways…

With the other three properly distracted, Lilandra stepped towards the mound of snow and knelt down to brush some of it away. Beneath was a very thick sheen of glass-like ice, and buried deep inside was something dark brown and square-shaped. It could be only one thing. Something akin to pleasure welled up inside of her. With the _Grimoire_ in her possession, there would be no limit to what she would be able to do. It had been a long journey to get here, but in the end, it was all going to pay off.

Lilandra turned over her palm and formed a fireball in it. She pressed it against the frozen ice, and it instantly began to melt, withering away from her touch. She could feel the anticipation and anxiousness building inside of her—she was so close…so close to having unlimited power at her disposal. She pressed on with the fireball, and once enough ice had melted away she extinguished the fire in the palm of her hand and used it to reach inside the hollowed out compartment of ice. The instant her fingers came in contact with the surface of the _Grimoire_ she felt its power course through her body. It was intoxicating, overwhelming, unlike anything she had ever felt before…and she couldn't wait to access more of it.

She was just beginning to pull it out of the crevice when she heard the frustrated grunt and complaints of one of the other demons.

"There's nothing here! This is like a wild goose chase. I don't think it's here at all."

Clutching the _Grimoire_ to her chest Lilandra stood up quickly, turning on her heels to face the other three. With her free hand she sent a fireball straight at the demon who was standing alone. With an agonized cry he turned into a pile of dust.

Lilandra's lips curled into a smirk when the other two demons quickly turned around and looked at her. Before they were able to respond to their fellow demon being killed she threw two more fireballs, and watched as they, too, were lit aflame, turning into piles of ashes. Now she didn't have to worry about them getting in her way, or letting anyone know that she had successfully gathered the book.

With this, she could begin her regime.

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Wyatt ran his hand through his hair and looked at his sister. "So, Patty, Penny and Henry are gonna meet us, right? Here?"

Mel nodded. "Yeah. They should be there right around the time Chris gets back from dinner with Mom and Dad. Which should be…" She looked at the watch on her wrist, "…sometime real soon, actually. So we should probably get back."

"You know, it's good that she can afford to shut the club down for a night." Wyatt, who was standing behind the bar of P3, glanced around, taking in the sights. It was a little bit over-decorated in his opinion, or at least, what he figured Chris would like. Their younger brother had never been one for glitz and glam, but Mel had insisted on making it more than just a few balloons and a cake. It would work. Hopefully.

"Yeah, it is." Mel tapped her hands against the countertop and grinned. "So you'll go get Chris, bring him back here, and we'll have the party?"

Wyatt nodded. "Yup. Hopefully we can do it demon free, too. Although any demon would have to be seriously stupid to try and attack us when there's six of us here. Especially with the three of us."

"Oh!" Mel exclaimed suddenly. She started shaking her hands. "It's seven thirty. They're gonna be home any second. Hurry, orb back!"

Doing as his little sister asked, Wyatt orbed back to the manor, into the kitchen. He arrived right around the time that the front door was opened, and he heard the familiar voices of his mom, dad and brother.

"…Yeah, thanks again for dinner, guys. It was really nice."

"I'm still a little offended that you didn't want to eat at my restaurant. It's like choosing McDonalds over…well, anything."

When Wyatt stepped into the dining room he heard his father say, "That's not really the best comparison, Piper…"

All three of them laughed, at which point the eldest Halliwell son clapped his hands together and moved toward his brother to clasp his shoulder. "Have a good dinner?"

"Yeah, yeah…Mom and Dad took me to that new Italian pasta place downtown." Chris reached up and scratched at his neck. "I feel like I'm gonna burst. It was one of those all you can eat pasta meal things."

"Chris ate more than the average person does," Leo chimed in with an amused grin on his face.

"Dad!" Chris looked somewhat embarrassed, and a little taken aback. He turned to look at his brother.

"Eh, don't worry about it, Chris." Wyatt laughed. "You know what a pig I can be sometimes. With Mom's cooking, it's hard not to be. But, that's not what I came to talk to you about. Mel and I haven't had a chance to give you your birthday gifts yet, so you gotta come with me. All right?"

Chris blinked, eyebrows rising. "Eh? Is she here?"

"She's, uh…she's in the kitchen." Wyatt nodded at that, and he started to lead his brother toward the kitchen from the sitting room and dining room. Over his shoulder he gave his parents a knowing grin, while the two of them simply smiled and headed into the living room.

Once in the kitchen, Chris turned to Wyatt and gave him a strange look. "Mel isn't in here. Wyatt, what—"

Before Chris could speak any further, his elder brother clasped his shoulder again and orbed them both to P3. When they rematerialized the younger one broke away quickly, and his hands were out, his stance defensive.

"What—"

He stopped when he realized that it wasn't anything more than his brother just orbing him somewhere. His defenses went up naturally in situations like that, especially where a little distrust was thrown in. From the look of it, though, he and Wyatt weren't the only ones there. It didn't take him but a moment to realize 'there' was their mother's club, and that Mel, Patty, Penny and Henry were all there, too. If they wanted to surprise him, they had done a damn good job of it.

"Happy birthday!" his siblings and cousins said to him.

"Patty, Penny, Henry…hey, guys." Chris grinned. "Are Aunt Phoebe, Uncle Coop, Aunt Paige and Uncle Henry gonna pop out and wish me happy birthday, too?"

"Mom's with dad at Vicky's dance recital," Patty said.

"And my parents are enjoying a night out while dad's parents watch the twins." Henry leaned against the bar. "Wy and Mel here said they wanted to throw a party for your birthday a while ago, so we all got in on it. We couldn't just let you three celebrate it on your own. Not real fun."

"If you're gonna try and get any booze…" Wyatt began, eying his cousin.

"I'm not, I'm not," Henry said, and he laughed. "Jeez, Wyatt. I'm only sixteen. You know me better than that."

They all shared a laugh then. Chris hadn't seen his cousins—at least Patty and Penny—for a while. He didn't go over to his Aunt Phoebe and Uncle Coop's house as often as Mel did, instead opting to go to his Aunt Paige and Uncle Henry's like Wyatt did. And in a way, part of him wondered if that didn't have to do with the fact that they were all whitelighter hybrids, whereas Mel, Patty, Penny and Vicky—his other cousin from his Aunt Phoebe—were

all simply witches.

Whatever the case was, this wasn't the time to think about that. It was a nice family gathering, a _non-magical_ family gathering, and that was something that didn't happen all that often, _especially_ without all of their parents around. They could be at ease, have fun and just hang out.

Chris would have to thank them for it again later.

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"To banish a witch…to bend someone's will…oh, and there's a potion for that…and a potion to create duplicates…hmm…"

Lilandra read aloud quietly to herself as she let her fingers drift over the wrinkled, aged parchment of the _Grimoire_. It was still hard for her to believe that she had been able to find it; in some ways, it felt almost as if it weren't true, and that she were simply dreaming it. Given the number of demons in the underworld who were looking for it, it was entirely possible that they had trapped her in some kind of dream world where everything was going her way.

But on some level, she knew she wasn't dreaming it. The sheer energy and power that emanated from the book was amazing. She felt ten times—even a hundred times—more powerful than she had been before. With this book's power, the opportunities were boundless, and she wasn't really sure where to start.

The Source had been vanquished, and was gone forever. Lilandra herself held no blood nor magic relation to him, but with that out of the way, perhaps maybe she would be able to coronate herself the new queen of the underworld. That was just one of many enticing possibilities. Her current favorite, however, resurfaced in her mind as she turned the page and came across the intricately written words "To Release Inhibitions". She had remembered reading something years ago about the Charmed Ones—the damned do-gooders—and how the spell had been used on them, and the disastrous effect that it had had. With the progeny of the eldest one being all grown up and doing the fighting, there would clearly be some benefits in using it.

Lilandra had gone up against the reconstituted Charmed Ones before, and had only managed to survive thanks to a number of demons that she had persuaded into coming along with her. With this book, she could then use the Inhibition Spell in combination with the one that would bend someone's will in order to kidnap the witch—the one that couldn't orb away like her brothers—and with her, turn the Power of Three sour and to the dark side. There had been those who had tried to do the same before and had failed. But there was one important thing that they didn't have: the _Grimoire._ With the knowledge inside of it, she was on the same level as the Power of Three and the _Book of Shadows._

Things were going to work out perfectly. Almost far too perfectly, she thought. She would need to take it slow so as to not rush in and destroy a golden opportunity like the one she had. Because if she did, there was no telling what would happen if she failed.

She brushed some of her frizzy, thick black hair behind her pale ears, long fingers and black polished fingernails of her free hand trailing down the page of the _Grimoire_. When would be the best time to perform the spell?

She would have to find them, first…

Lilandra stood up and set the book on her old and tattered wooden table, right next to her mortar and pestle. Reaching up into a little crevice in the wall, she pulled down a large clay bowl and set it on the table beside the book. After collecting a few ingredients from her shelves and stores she tossed a few sprig leaves into her mortar and pestle, mixing it with some coca. The result was a somewhat thick goo that she then scraped into the bowl. A sprinkle of grinded faerie dust later, and an opaque film began building from the combined ingredients. She poured in some water for reflective properties, all the while thinking of Wyatt, Chris and Melinda.

Before her eyes, the film began swirling around on the surface of the water, forming a scene. It took a moment before it was in focus, but soon she could see dark blue walls, many chairs and tables, and in the middle, an oval-shaped bar with lots of glasses hanging from the top of it. There were party balloons everywhere. Once the scene was set, she focused harder on those in question before six figures formed inside the setting. She recognized them all—there were children from Phoebe and Paige there as well. She had never attacked them personally, but she knew many demons who went up against them, only to be killed by the eldest, Patty. Her ability to deflect powers and project strong human emotions made her difficult to deal with. Plus, the middle one—Penny—had premonitions just like her mother, which made attacking by surprise hard. And for Henry…that entire family, save for the mortal father, had the ability to orb away when in danger, which made any sort of non pre-emptive strike fail almost immediately.

The last thing to form in the scene was the sound. There was music playing, although it was low and not all that distracting. Lilandra lowered her head some.

"…Well, that'd explain why you were clutching the staircase like you were when I came back from the alley behind the movie theater. You could have just told me what was wrong. I would have helped you."

"Yeah, but you know with Chris—it's a pride thing."

"Shut up, Mel, it is _not_."

Soon listening to them become more of a chore than it should have been. Lilandra lifted her head, looking over the spell in the book. She had never actually cast a spell before, instead choosing to rely on her demonic abilities of flame throwing, fireball throwing and shimmering. This would prove to be an interesting.

Glancing between the scene in the bowl and back at the book, she read aloud, "_Tucked away deep inside, that is where one's heartfelt wishes lie. From inhibition's shackles you are free, you will now do as you please_."

Once she read from the book her eyes instantly darted back to the scene unfolding before her in the bowl. Nothing happened for a moment, but then suddenly, she noticed a very brief flicker on Piper's three children, one that must have signified the spell's success. In just a moment's time she could hear them talking in a slightly different manner than before.

This was going to be better than she expected.


	5. Chapter 5

Author's Notes: I'm glad to see that people think this story is so good! I strive to do my best with my writing. Thank you for all of the good comments! Hope you enjoy this chapter as much as the others :D Don't forget to review!

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Henry sounded irritated. "What do you mean by that?" 

"Exactly what I said," Chris replied simply. "Why would I want to spend my birthday with my family? This is boring. I want to go out and dance somewhere and have a good time. I already spent my twentieth birthday with you guys and it wasn't anything special. I want to go out and have _fun _on this birthday. Get a drink or two, or something. I dunno. I'll see you guys later."

Without so much as another word about it, Chris orbed out of P3, though to where, none of them knew. This left the other five behind.

"Good point. In fact, why should we even be with family right now?" Wyatt, who had been sitting, now moved to stand and folded his arms over his chest. "There's plenty of stuff I need to get done. I'm gonna head home and talk to mom and dad about moving out. I don't want to be at the manor any longer than I have to. I'm tired of sharing a room with Chris."

"But Wyatt, what—" Patty began, but she was cut off when Wyatt, too, orbed up and out of the club. She turned and looked at Mel, frustrated. "What the hell is up with your brothers?"

"I dunno," Mel said. She, too, shrugged. "But I don't really want to stay her much longer either, honestly. Not if Chris isn't even gonna be here. This party _was_ for him. And, you know, I canceled a date to be here…" She scratched her chin. "I wonder if he'd still want to meet up with me tonight?"

Patty, Penny and Henry all looked at each other in confusion.

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When Wyatt orbed into the manor again, Piper was in the living room, nestled into the corner of the couch while she read a book. She noticed her son's appearance almost right away. Having not expected him back for a while, she was surprised to see him standing there in the foyer. She looked over the rim of her glasses.

"Wyatt? What're you doing back home so early?"

Wyatt looked momentarily caught off guard. "Oh! Hey, Mom. I'm glad you're here."

Piper snorted. "Where else would I be? You only left about an hour ago."

"Uh…where's dad?"

"He's in the kitchen, getting a snack. What's wrong?"

"Nothing, nothing," Wyatt said. But he shook his head. "Actually, hang on…"

While Wyatt stepped into the kitchen, presumably to grab Leo, Piper shifted on the couch, closed her book and set it on the end table beside her. Her son was acting strangely, and she was a little worried about him. What would be so important that he needed to speak to both of them at the same time about it?

Piper was just moving to stand when Wyatt came in through the foyer, tugging Leo along.

"Wyatt, what is it?" Leo said, somewhat confused. "What's so important that it couldn't wait for me to finish making my sandwich?"

Wyatt waited until both of his parents were standing side by side before he said, and with a very final tone in his voice, "I'm gonna move out."

Had it been at all possible, Piper would have frozen him right then and there. Not for what he had said, but for the way that he said it. Something seemed _off_ about it, and even if she couldn't put her finger on why right off the bat, she knew that it wasn't _normal_.

"What?" she asked.

"I want to move out." Wyatt cleared his throat. "I've been living here at the manor for a couple years longer than I thought I would, and…I'm really getting sick of sharing a room with Chris. We're adults. I think that if either of us should stay, it should be him. I've nearly graduated from college and…it's just time for me to get out."

It was Leo's turn to be confused. "Wyatt, what're you talking about? You were just saying yesterday how you wanted to stay here a little while longer until you got your bearings set and some money under your belt."

"Well, things change, Dad," Wyatt said. "I got a friend who'll get me a job working for him down at the docks. Making money won't be too hard."

"You're not moving out, Wyatt," Piper said, and with a finality in her own tone that trumped that of her son. "Because this isn't you." She looked up at Leo. "Leo, I think he's under a spell."

Wyatt spoke before Leo could even reply. "I'm_ not_ under a spell, Mom. I want to move out. You need to accept that."

"Piper, this—" Leo began. He stopped, however, and looked up, momentarily in thought. "…this seems a lot like when you were hit by that inhibition spell."

"Whoa…flashback." Piper blinked. "That was a long time ago. I thought—"

"Listen," Wyatt interrupted. "It's good that you two are strolling down memory lane, but I've to go start packing."

"Don't you—_Wyatt_!" Piper shouted. But it was no use; her son was already orbing, and by the time she had her hand out he was already upstairs. She looked at Leo. "Well, don't just stand there!" she exclaimed. "How did you knock that spell out of us?"

"It just sort of happened, if I remember right. You and your sisters were in trouble, and I think the connection between the three of you managed to get the spell to break. Sort of like when you, Prue, Phoebe and I were infected with those orbs of the seven deadly sins. Our love and worry for one another is what broke it," Leo explained. He was mildly exasperated. "I'm just…worried. If he was hit with it, then I'm gonna bet that Chris and Melinda were, too…and even Patty, Penny and Henry. Whichever demon chose to do this picked a really bad day for it. I don't think the spell lasted too long, from what I remember."

Out of the corner of her eye, Piper noticed a large collection of white-blue orbs appearing in the dining room. She made a face, though not in disgust—more in irritation with the situation. "Speaking of _them_…"

But her tone changed when she saw that not only were Patty, Penny and Henry all together, but her sisters, Phoebe and Paige too, both of whom were looking worried. That was never good.

And…where was Mel?

"Where's—"

Piper's worry was cut off by the frantic commotion of the family spilling out of the dining room and into the foyer and sitting room. She and Leo met them halfway.

"Penny had a premonition," Phoebe said. "She saw—"

Penny stepped in front of her mother. "I saw Mel being kidnapped."

---------------------------------------------------------------------

The music was pumping through Chris' body, guiding his movements with ease. The truth was, he had never really danced all that much before, but it didn't _feel_ like he hadn't. And with the way the tall, light haired and slightly stocky guy he was dancing with was helping move their bodies together, it wasn't like he had to do much of the work anyways. With his arm draped loosely around the guy's neck, Chris brought himself closer, feeling the music almost coursing through him.

He had been dancing for a while now, longer than he had intended to. But the music transitioned easily and smoothly from one song to the next, which was hard for him to notice. The beat of the current song, however, didn't match the one that it faded into, and so he decided that if he was going to get a drink, it was now or never.

Chris licked his lips. "I gotta get some water…"

"Lemme buy you some…come on."

With his inhibitions comfortably packed deep down inside of him where they couldn't be active, Chris allowed himself to be pulled toward the bar. The club itself was warmer now than it had been at first, and he—even though dancing some more seemed like a great idea—wanted to take a little break first. His stomach was still digesting the cake from his party.

Once they sat down at the bar, the man ordered Chris his drink, and he turned on his stool to look at him. "You know, for someone who's never danced before, you did damn well."

"Thanks, Landon. Figured I needed to do_ something_ fun on my birthday. My family threw a party for me, but it was…" Chris laughed, "boring as fuck."

"Yeah. Lemme guess…parents and…siblings, right? They throw it for you?"

Chris noticed Landon leaning in a bit closer on the bar top. He, too, moved just a little closer, taking a long sip of his water. "Actually, just my brother, sister and my cousins. I've…got a pretty big family."

"Well," Landon began, "they can be a story for another day. You came here to get away from them all, obviously." He laughed. "We can just dance."

"Sounds like a plan." The smirk on Chris' face turned into one of an amused sort. Unabashedly he reached out and gripped Landon's hand, and he got out of his chair, tugging the other along back onto the dance floor.

There were a number of people around, which was somewhat surprising, given the time. It was just a little past ten, and most clubs—at least from what Wyatt had told him—didn't get busy until late into the night, somewhere around eleven or twelve, and sometimes even as late as one or two in the morning. Still, it wasn't as bad as it could be, he supposed. They still had room to dance, just the two of them, and once on the floor he noticed Landon's arms slipping under his own, wrapping loosely around his waist.

This felt nice, Chris thought. Not having to worry about demons, or what his siblings were doing, or his cousins…he was tired of having to constantly concern himself with the well being of everyone else and ignore his own needs and feelings. It was like his mother had told him: he wasn't everyone's caretaker. At times it felt that way, but in this moment, he knew that it had been self-induced, his worry. He wasn't letting himself be free, or get out there in the world and live a little. But here…here, he _was._

And so was Landon. Chris could feel their bodies moving closer together as they danced, could feel their hips grind and then break apart, and could feel their faces coming in closer and closer contact. He almost kissed him—almost—but something stopped him. Instead he just focused on continuing to dance, letting himself go for once.

The two of them continued to dance just a little while longer, until the song began wind down and the beat shifted from something continuous to a more jagged and catchy. At this point Landon pulled his head back enough to look at Chris. It didn't take a genius to know what he wanted to do.

Landon walked with Chris over toward the stairs along the side of the club. They led up the balcony, where a number of chairs, plush couches and the bathrooms were. But he bypassed the bathrooms and the chairs, and he led Chris to one of the couches, guiding him onto it. The two sat side by side, a pair of hands intertwined. No words were shared, because they didn't need to be. Instead the two of them communicated with a few touches—Chris' free hand gliding up and over Landon's collarbone as he moved in, bringing his lips together with the other's. There was a bristly feel against his chin from Landon's goatee, but he ignored it.

Not surprisingly, once the kiss became somewhat deeper Chris moved in closer, and he slowly pushed Landon backward onto the couch.

Landon broke the kiss for just a moment. There was a grin on his face.

Chris responded with a grin of his own before kissing him again. It had been…a _very_ long time since he had done something like this, and it felt _nice_. In fact, it felt better than nice. His fingers trailed over the other's collarbone once more and up his neck, the tips coming in contact with Landon's sideburns.

Soon there was a tongue prodding at his lips. This was the kind of kissing Chris had never really done—but he wasn't about to stop it. He would go with the flow. His lips parted, slowly, and he exhaled quick little breaths through his nose in the same way that he could feel Landon doing. It wasn't long thereafter that one of Landon's hands was working its way down his back, over his side, teasingly passing over his backside. Chris would have grinned again if his lips weren't occupied.

Not too far away in the bathroom, people were coming and going, as was normal. What people _didn't_ notice was the mysterious, swirling blue lights that appeared in one of the stalls. A few seconds later out of it popped Wyatt. This had to be where Chris was…he could sense him here. So _this_ was what Chris wanted? This was what he wanted when he was free of his inhibitions? He supposed he could see it. Chris always put family first and himself second…

When Wyatt stepped out of the bathroom, he looked around, squinting his eyes because of the lights swirling around on the ceiling. He had never been to this club before. But that was beside the point. Right now he needed to find his brother. He needed to find Chris.

"Chris?" he called out, even though part of him wondered if it would even work. When nobody responded, he didn't really take it to heart. Instead he walked over toward the railing of the balcony, hoping to see his brother on the dance floor. His focus stopped when he heard a strangely familiar laugh coming from not too far away.

On the couch, Landon had grabbed Chris' butt and squeezed it, which caused the darker haired one to laugh. Wyatt looked just in time to see his brother kiss him again.

He didn't know what to think when he saw that. Part of him had expected to see Chris dancing; see him drinking himself shitless; even see him making out with a girl…but _not_ be sprawled out on a couch on top of another _guy_, and a guy that was groping his ass, nonetheless. A sour, tight sort of feeling suddenly gripped Wyatt's stomach, and he reached up to rub the side of his face.

He quickly stepped over to where Chris was, clearing his throat in an overtly audible manner. It caught Chris' attention for sure, but all it managed to make him do was pause and look up at him.

"…Hey, Wyatt," Chris said. "What're you doing here?"

"Saving you from making an _ass_ of yourself," Wyatt said. He reached down and gripped his younger brother's shoulder, tugging him swiftly up off the couch and onto his feet. "God, Chris, what are you _doing_?"

"I'm enjoying my birthday." Chris snorted. "What does it look like I'm doing?"

At the same time, both Wyatt and Landon—who had moved to stand as well—asked while pointing at the other, "Who's this?"

"This is my brother," Wyatt stated. "And you—I dunno who you are, but my brother's not in the right state of mind right now, so I'm getting him away from the likes of you." Wyatt, who was easily taller than both Chris and Landon, didn't hesitate to use his height to make himself seem more daunting.

And it seemed to work, at least on Landon. "Yeah, well, he seemed fine to me."

"I _am_ fine," Chris interjected petulantly. "Wyatt doesn't know what he's talking about. He always thinks that he knows what's best for us when he doesn't."

"Yeah, Wyatt_ does_ know what he's talking about, and he _does_ know what's best for you right now." Wyatt gripped his brother's shoulder tersely and he pursed his lips. He looked at Landon. "You know what? Why don't you go find some other dude to mack on? I'm gonna take my brother home."

Chris was glaring daggers. "Wyatt, damn it, what are you—"

"_Chris_."

Landon rolled his eyes, reaching into his pocket to pull out a card, which he handed to Chris. "Dude, whatever, I've…gotta get going. Lemme know if you'll be around without your brother trying to keep a leash on you?"

"Landon—Landon, wait—" Before Chris was able to respond, Landon was already walking away, leaving the two Hailliwells alone by the couch. Chris angrily shoved at his brother's shoulder. "What the _hell_, Wyatt, I was—"

"_Chris_! Mel's…Mel's been kidnapped."

As if something cold had been splashed on him, Chris felt his senses coming back to him, his inhibitions. And, even though he couldn't see it, a glowing, opaque sheen of white washed over him from head to toe. He looked at Wyatt, mouth somewhat agape.

Swallowing, he said, "No."

Wyatt could only shake his head.


	6. Chapter 6

Author's Notes: Here's chapter six! I hope you all enjoy it as much as the last :D Don't own them, like always.

* * *

Chris orbed back home alongside his brother, arriving in the conservatory. Sitting at the dining room table were his cousins, aunts, as well as his mother and father. The _Book of Shadows_ was resting in the middle. It was hard for him to swallow the fact that his sister had been kidnapped. That kind of thing just didn't _happen_ with them. 

But then again, neither did that spell that Wyatt had told him they had been hit with. An Inhibition spell had an oddly familiar ring to it, one that Chris didn't really understand. That was the least of their worries right now, though. They were going to have to find Mel, and they were going to have to do it quickly. If they didn't, there was no telling what in the world was going to happen. That worried him.

"Hey," he said to everyone, only to receive a few dirty looks from his cousins. It was obviously in response to what he had done back at the club, and it made him flush red. There was nothing worse than being unable to explain yourself when you had clearly done so, and under the influence of a spell. He _had _wanted to be there, though…

He saw his mom move to stand from her chair. Piper stepped toward him and wrapped her arms around his waist, hugging him. Chris wasn't really sure why she had done it, but he didn't stop her, and he hugged her back, looking down at her.

"You all right?"

"I will be, once we find your sister."

Leo quietly cleared his throat. "Penny saw her being kidnapped by a demon. But—"

"But when Henry orbed Patty and I to where we saw her being kidnapped, she wasn't there." Penny shook her head. Her eyes were red and he could see that her mascara had run some. She had obviously been crying. "We weren't able to get there in time."

Phoebe, who was standing behind the chairs her daughters were sitting in, ran her fingers over Penny's light brown hair, gripping her shoulder. "It's okay, Penny. We'll find Mel."

"Were you able to identify the demon?" Chris asked.

"No," Wyatt said, and he sighed. "Penny didn't get a good image of her in her vision. Apparently whichever demon did it is a woman…we know that much. But other than that, we have no idea. There's dozens of possibilities."

"We're going through and marking the pages of the ones we know it isn't, thanks to Mom, Aunt Phoebe and Aunt Piper." Henry, who had been quiet up until then as he flipped through the pages, stopped just long enough to look up at Chris, before he lowered his head again. Henry then sat up very quickly, looking over a page in the _Book_. "Hey, what if we used this spell?"

Piper, who was still somewhat hugging Chris at that time, pulled away from her son and stepped toward the table to look at the page in question. "The protection from evil spell for the manor? I guess it could work. At least in keeping the rest of us intact…as long as we stay here."

"We'll copy it down and take it back to our houses, too," Paige said. "Which…we should be getting back to. I'm sure Henry's worried about us…"

"Coop, too," Phoebe said. "He stayed at Vicky's recital so he could pick her up and let her know what happened." She looked at her watch. "It's almost over, too, so they should be home soon. I told him to meet me back at the house."

"Do you need me to stay here, Aunt Piper? Uncle Leo?" Penny asked suddenly.

"Or me?" Patty chimed in.

"No, no, it's okay." Piper shook her head. "We'll be fine. Wyatt, Chris, Leo and I will work on this for now. But if we need any help, we'll let you know."

Both Phoebe and Paige moved towards Piper then, and the three of them shared a hug. When Phoebe pulled back, she said,

"Paige, could you orb the three of us back home?"

"Yeah…yeah, no problem. Henry," Paige looked at her son, "just head back home, and tell your dad that I'll be there in a bit, all right?"

"All right, Mom," Henry said.

In just a few seconds' time, the dining room was lit up with the familiar white-blue orbs as Paige, along with Phoebe, Patty, Penny and Henry all disappeared. This left Leo, Piper, Wyatt and Chris, all of whom looked at one another before looking in different directions.

Chris moved towards the _Book of Shadows_. "I'll…say the spell for the house, and Wyatt, could you get the crystals? We'll set them around the outside."

"Your mom and I are going to go up to the attic and see if we can't scry for her," Leo said.

"No, no," Chris disagreed. "Don't worry about that, Dad. Wyatt and I can handle it. You two don't need to worry about it. We took over for a reason."

"We can't just sit around, Chris," Piper murmured worriedly with a shake of her head. "You know that. We'll—"

"No, but you know Wyatt and I will do everything we can to find Mel." Chris glanced over his shoulder toward the stairs, watching his brother until he couldn't see him anymore. Afterward he turned to look back at his parents. "Just let us do it. You two have enough on your plates with the restaurant and Magic School."

Piper sighed again. She was visibly worried, and that in turn worried Chris even more. Part of him told him not to let it show, but this was his family. He knew better than to try and pretend around them. Giving his mom another hug, as well as giving one to his dad, Chris gestured for them to head up the stairs before he gripped the _Book_ and held it against his chest.

"All right, Chris. We'll leave it up to you." Leo wrapped his arm around Piper's shoulders, slowly starting to head for the staircase. "Let us know if you find anything out."

"I will."

Chris watched his parents go towards the stairs this time, and he blinked when Piper stopped them at the first stair. She looked at him and smiled very faintly.

"You have my full permission to not go to class tomorrow."

Despite himself, Chris smiled a little.

---------------------------------------------------------------------

It had been a smart move, kidnapping the girl.

At first Lilandra had wondered if it was even going to work. But then, her doubt had been misplaced, because the_Grimoire_ had never steered anyone wrong in the past. It was simply the fault of those who had used it. And she, for one, didn't plan on losing her way _or_ her focus. She was going to break this Charmed circle just as the Source had broken it some twenty-odd years ago.

It was possible. And it was in her grasp, right here.

Lilandra glanced up from her table at the other side of her lair, the sight of the youngest Charmed One passed out making her smile in a strange sort of way. It had been sheer luck that the spell had gotten Melinda out of the club and into the alleyway where Lilandra had been able to get her. The fact that her cousins hadn't followed her had been a little surprising, but for that, she was thankful. They were surely kicking themselves over it right now.

There were records—tales—about the Charmed Ones being turned over to the evil side. Each and every time, however, the plan seemed to fail, and the three witches promptly vanquished the demons or warlocks that had done it. This time, though…Lilandra had no plans of failing. She was going to poison Melinda with evil just like the Seer had when Phoebe was pregnant with the Source's child.

How long ago that was…

With the _Grimoire_ beside her on the tabletop, Lilandra picked up a thin vial full of a thick, opaque green liquid. She carefully popped the cork off and tipped the vial over the mixing bowl in front of her. She only let the tiniest bit drop inside before she put the put the cork back on. Almost as a delayed reaction to the ingredient the potion popped, and a puff of smoke shot straight up from the middle of it.

"Now all it needs is some arrowroot…"

She got up just long enough to grab three leaves of it, and she stood beside the bowl so that she could carefully drop them inside of it. Three was likely pushing it, but since it was known as the obedience plant—the main ingredient in the potion for bending someone's will—she knew that she would need more than the average one leaf…especially for a Charmed One.

The potion gave yet another interesting poof, however the smoke that billowed from the bowl disappeared much quicker than before, and left a shimmering twinkle of gold that lasted for several seconds. When it, too, disappeared, she knew that it was ready. She picked up the pestle beside her and gently poked at the potion, then stirred it until it was a little less thick. Once it looked drinkable she put the pestle down and picked up her goblet, dipping it into the bowl to scoop out some of the potion.

Some of the smoke continued to slowly puff out of the goblet as she walked with it over to where Mel was. As she was lying on the stone table, Lilandra was able to pour the potion down her throat with little to no difficulty. A little dribbled off the side, but she didn't worry about it. It would dry and Mel would more than likely clean it up later.

After a few seconds Melinda began coughing suddenly, and she lifted a hand immediately to cover her mouth as she did so. Lilandra stepped back. Hopefully the potion had taken effect…it wasn't coming back up. That was an obvious step forward.

Mel, as she moved to sit up, sputtered repeatedly. But she didn't attack Lilandra, and that was good. In fact, she even turned and looked at her, blinking a few times.

"Where am I?" she asked a little groggily.

"That's unimportant," Lilandra said. "What_is_ important, however, is the fact that you're not attacking me." She paused momentarily. "I want you to walk over there."

As if without needing another word about it, Melinda slowly moved to stand, and then she stepped over toward the corner, near a few barrels.

"Now, I want you to come back over here."

Again Mel did as she asked with no backtalk, and with no request as to why she should do it. The potion had worked, clearly, and that meant wondrous things. Smirking, Lilandra folded her arms over her chest. "Sit." Once Melinda did so, the older woman continued on, "I have a task for you."

"What?" Mel asked.

"I want you to continue acting as you had been tonight. You will do as you like, and only I will be able to tell you_ any different_. Do you understand?"

"Yes."

"You will answer to no one but me. You will not fight demons, you will not learn spells, and you will not make potions. You will tell your family that the kidnapping scarred you badly and you don't want to remember it. You will tell them that you vanquished me with your powers, but that you can't remember what I looked like. If they try to get you to think about it, I want you to become frustrated, cry and clam up. You will _not_, under_any_ circumstances, release _any_ information about what you saw here."

Mel simply nodded. "Okay."

Lilandra looked back to the _Grimoire_, as well as her batch of the will-bending potion. She raised an eyebrow upon returning her gaze to Melinda. "Tomorrow night, as with every other night, you will wake up at two in the morning, and we will meet outside so that I can bring you back here. If you are not out there, I will kill you."

Again, Mel nodded. "Okay."

"Now." Lilandra gripped Mel's arm and pulled her off of the table. There Mel stood while the other reached for her nearby dagger. A few whisks of it later and the younger witch was covered in cuts and scrapes. She was wincing and shaking from them.

With her hand on Mel's wrist Lilandra then shimmered out of her lair and into a separate part of the underworld. This part she knew had a weak block from the powers above; here they would be able to hear her calls.

"Call for your brothers to find you, and tell them what I told you. Remember. If you do not follow what I tell you—and I'll know—I will not hesitate to take your life."

As she shimmered away, she could already hear Melinda's frantic cries for her brothers, Wyatt and Chris.

---------------------------------------------------------------------

With his parents now upstairs, Chris took the _Book_ and stepped into the sitting room. As it was the center of the manor, it was the best place to cast the spell. And with his brothers placing the crystals outside…

He looked over the page in front of him, clearing his throat. "_For every witch in every hour, send us now the greatest power. Brick and mortar, wood and stone, protect our center, protect our home._"

Almost instantly a strange burst of energy shot from the book in all directions. Chris noticed it coating the walls of the manor as if the energy had exploded on them. They all glowed gently for a moment before it faded away, leaving them as they had been just seconds before. He wondered just how long the spell would last…if it would even last that long at all. If they could just throw up that kind of protection spell whenever there was danger, he doubted that half the things that had happened over the years would have even happened at all.

Closing the book shut, Chris clutched it to his chest and started up the stairs to head toward the attic. He saw Wyatt hunched over a table with a map spread across the top of it, clearly scrying for where their sister was. His stomach felt like it was in knots—they hadn't dealt with something like this before. But he was the one that told their mom and dad that they could handle it.

And they would. Chris wasn't going to give up hope.

"_Damn it_!" Wyatt exclaimed suddenly, slamming his hand down on the table. The scrying crystal tumbled down onto the wooden floor beside him with a quiet sound.

Chris stepped further into the attic and headed toward the stand to set the _Book of Shadows_ back onto it. And even though the answer was obvious, he asked, "Crystals all set?"

Wyatt, looking visibly frustrated, glanced upward at his brother, appearing somewhat surprised, too. "Yeah. I just finished. Thought I'd try looking for Mel with the crystal, but…"

"No luck." It was pretty obvious that his brother was angry. Chris, who was generally the level-headed one, was going to have to keep them both calm, or otherwise Wyatt's attitude was going to brush off on him, and they were going to have problems. He rested his hands on top of the _Book_. "Did you try sensing her?"

"I thought about it, but if scrying doesn't work, sensing her isn't going to, either."

Wyatt was looking much more distressed than Chris would have thought him to. The other's powers usually gave him a strong sense of comfort, a lack of worry. But here, he seemed almost like he was already losing hope. It wasn't like him.

Chris moved towards his brother, reaching up to grip his shoulder. He was surprised when he noticed Wyatt wincing and pulling back just the slightest bit. He raised an eyebrow, which Wyatt saw, and which made the older one sigh.

"I…"

Confused, Chris asked, "What's the matter?"

Wyatt stayed silent for a moment. Then, "Chris…why didn't you tell me?"

Chris was even more confused now. "Tell you what?"

Now the blond was looking uncomfortable. "…God, Chris, don't make me say it."

It was then that Chris finally got what he was talking about. And the unfortunate thing was, it made him flush. That had been happening way more than he wanted it to lately. Pulling his hand back, he used it to rub at his face. He sighed.

"Seriously," Wyatt said, sounding a bit firmer this time.

"I don't know," Chris finally settled on saying.

"You don't _know_? God, Chris, how can't you know? That's kind of a big thing to just _not_—" Wyatt paused. He had stepped back from the table—as well as his brother—and had a somewhat cross look on his face. "You can't just _not_ say something like that."

That set Chris immediately on the defensive. "Well, maybe it's because I knew you were gonna act like _this_! Want to alienate me a little more, Wyatt? Make me feel like I'm even more different than everyone else?"

"You—" Wyatt turned slightly red. "That's not what I meant to do, Chris, and you know it. I just—God, having to find out by catching you making out with some _guy_? Do you know what that was like, seeing that?"

"Do you know what it was like, _doing _it?" Chris countered. "I was under the influence of a spell!"

"An anti-inhibition spell!" Wyatt exclaimed. "All it did was let you finally get out and do what you wanted to. And it was obviously a real doozy."

Chris didn't have anything to say against that. If that had been the spell, then it had clearly done what it had intended to…

"And you weren't the only one hit by it. I was, too, and I can only guess that Mel was. Patty, Penny and Henry said she was acting weird when she left. I don't know why they didn't follow after her, but—"

"They didn't follow after her?" Chris asked suddenly.

"It's too late to care about that now," Wyatt continued, tone becoming sharp due to having been interrupted. "We've got other things to deal about."

"What, like my maybe liking guys?"

"I'd say it's _way_ more than just a_maybe_, Chris, or do you need to get your damn eyes checked?"

Chris scowled. It didn't seem to deter Wyatt any, however.

"I just wish you would have told me. I'm your_brother_, Chris. I'm not going to treat you like crap because of it. Hell, I couldn't really give a shit who you like. That's your business, not mine. But you know we don't hide things around here. It just makes things messy and hard to deal with later. I _need_ to know these things."

"Why?" Chris asked angrily. "Why do you _need_ to know, Wyatt? Is it because you think you need to protect me from the big, bad world or something?"

"Yes!" Wyatt shouted. His voice boomed, and he threw his hands up, which caused Chris to flinch instinctively. "Yes," he repeated, though quieter. "All right? It's my job as your older brother to protect you, you idiot."

"I don't need you to _protect_ me, Wyatt, I can take care of myself." It was an immediate reaction, and Chris said it before he had realized it was out of his mouth. He didn't realize it, either, but he had a somewhat childish look on his face.

"Like hell you can. You're more reckless than—" but Wyatt stopped himself, and he looked down.

Chris nearly glared. "More reckless than who, Wyatt? Come on, who?"

"More reckless than Aunt Prue, okay?" Wyatt said in exasperation. "More reckless than Aunt Prue. Mom's told us about her, we've read about her…she constantly put Mom and Aunt Phoebe before her, and look what happened." There was something like a faint shaking in Wyatt's voice that seemed to make him stop for a moment. "You act just like her, sometimes, Chris, and you know it. It's scary."

Chris softened his tone just barely. "Yeah, well, I—"

"No, what _you_ need is to stop being mister super witch all the time. You're not the only one doing this. There's plenty of us to help. You don't have to take care of this family. So stop it."

There was nothing that he could say to counter that, because Wyatt was right; and the inhibition spell had reminded him of that, as well as of what their mom had said: Chris wasn't the family's caretaker. He didn't have to worry about everyone all the time, because they could watch after themselves, and others would do the same.

Wyatt looked down. "God, Chris, I just…don't want to see you die."

"Is _that_ what this is about?" Chris moved towards the other again. He nudged him in the arm, raising an eyebrow.

Wyatt reached out and grabbed him, abruptly wrapping his arms around him in a brotherly sort of hug. "You gotta let us look out for you, too." When he let Chris go, he said, "And rely on us every now and then. We know what we're doing, too, you know."

Chris snorted. "I know that, Wyatt."

"Then start showing it."

That really was the bottom line. If he tried to fight it any further, he knew that he was going to fail, and that it was only going to get worse. This was the kind of thing that was going to take time—he knew that it wouldn't be so easily dealt with. At least now, though, he could start trying. Wyatt had yelled at him about it; his mother had talked to him about it; and the spell itself had shown him what life was like not having to worry all the time.

It wouldn't be _too_ bad, hopefully.

"Yeah. Will do," Chris said.

Wyatt smiled. "See? Not so hard. You just gotta keep up with it. I'll help."

Just as he was about to open his mouth to say something, the sudden sound of his sister screaming entered his head. It was frantic, worried sounding, and even a little painful. He furrowed his brow to focus in on it. Mel was crying for both him and for Wyatt.

He looked to his brother. "Did you hear that?"

Wyatt nodded a little. "…Mel." He paused, during which time he gripped Chris' shoulder. "Come on, let's go."


	7. Chapter 7

Author's Notes: Just wanted to take this time to thank everyone in particular for reviewing the story and giving me such warm and friendly feedback!

_charmed forever fan:_ I was thinking of doing a sequel after this one, but I wasn't really sure. This story has about 3 more chapters after this one before it finishes. :)

_guardian music angel: _Thank you! I usually update about once a day, so keep an eye out!

_charmed4eva112:_ Mel will be okay! Well, as okay as one can be, really, with what happened to her...You'll see in this chapter, sort of :D

_quillsandbolts:_ Your review was really awesome. Thanks for the kind words.

_angeljanicemorgan4: _I really appreciate the enthusiasm in your review! I love hearing that people really enjoyed my stories!_  
_

_Melinda Wyatt Charmed_: I'm glad you enjoyed it! It's always good to hear that one's stories aren't like the others on the site. Haha!

As always, don't own them. And since I have a lot of free time coming up (yay winter holidays!) I think I might do a fic continuation, although I don't know for sure. I was toying around with the idea of a power swapping story--Piper making her kids work together after not getting along after a while--so we'll see where that goes. This story was actually supposed to be a continuation of my first story, Parallelism, but I decided against it when the characters didn't work the same way when I was writing them...pesky things!

There were also a lot of italics in this chapter so there's half a chance I might have forgotten to change one or two over from the italic markers. If I did, I apologize, and just let me know so I can change it :D

* * *

Mel stumbled around in the dark. Her hands were out in front of her but she couldn't seem to find anything to grab onto. It was like she was walking around in a dark, endless void. Having never before been in the underworld, this was an overwhelmingly scary situation for her. 

"WYATT! CHRIS!" she yelled, her voice feeling hoarse.

Suddenly, Mel yelped. Her foot had gotten caught on something in the dirt, and it caused her to stumble again, tripping over her feet. It wasn't long thereafter that her balance went out completely, and she fell to the ground with a pained "oomph".

Frustrated and scared, she muttered, "God, where are you guys?"

Nothing happened for a moment. Then, a blinding white-blue light lit up the space around her. Mel looked about just long enough to see that she had tripped over a rock, and that, at least in the distance, there were all sorts of rock formations and large stalagmites coming up from the ground. Shortly thereafter, she saw the familiar figures of her brothers, but once their white-blue light faded they were in the dark again.

The last thing Mel remembered feeling before she found herself lying on the floor of the manor was the throbbing feeling in her ankle. Soon she was being lifted up from the wooden floor and was being supported by both of her brothers while she stood.

"God, Mel, are you okay?" Wyatt asked, looking worried.

"Does it look like I'm okay?" she snapped, pulling back from her brothers' touches. Her hair was somewhat matted to her head from her sweat, and her wounds were still bleeding. She winced again.

"Here, let me heal it."

Mel stood in place while Wyatt stepped closer to her again. He stuck his hands out and, once they began to glow, he guided them over her skin, healing the cuts and scrapes that she had all over her body. When she glanced over her shoulder she noticed that Chris had disappeared.

"Where'd Chris go?" she asked.

"Probably to get mom and dad."

Sure enough, just a few moments later she heard hurried footsteps just above her, and soon her brother, mother and father were all moving down the stairs. Before Melinda had a chance to think, her mother was gripping her in a tight hug, and her father hugged the both of them. She felt squished, trapped…and unbelievably uncomfortable. Her body stiffened, but nobody seemed to notice.

When Piper and Leo pulled back, Piper said, "Mel, we were so worried…thank God you're okay."

"Yeah," Mel replied.

"She was in the underworld," Chris stated suddenly. "But we couldn't find the demon that got her."

The memory of what the demon had told her popped into Melinda's head. Without much thought to it she said, "I vanquished her."

Piper, Leo, Chris and Wyatt all looked somewhat surprised.

"You vanquished her?" Chris asked.

"Is that so hard to believe?"

Both Chris and Wyatt looked at Melinda then, which made her frown a little.

"Well?" she repeated.

"No," the brothers said together.

"Whatever the case," Piper interjected, reaching out to wrap an arm around Melinda's shoulders, "she's home. That's all that matters. She vanquished the demon, and we won't have to worry about it anymore."

"No, we won't," Melinda said in agreement. Reaching up, she ran a hand through her tangled hair, and she sighed. "Can we just…I don't want to talk about this anymore. It's—I'm tired."

"You've been through a lot," Leo said to his daughter, a small smile on his face. "You should get some sleep."

Chris began to say, "I'll stay up a little later to make sure everything—" but he paused. Piper was looking at him. "…Actually, never mind. I'll just grab something to drink and head to bed, too, I think. It's been a really long day…night. You know what I mean."

Mel didn't want to ask, nor did she want to know. All she knew was that she felt crowded, and still very uncomfortable with everyone around her. Giving her mom and dad a hug just to appease them, Mel thanked her brothers and then headed up the stairs toward her room. Once in there she shut and locked her door.

She shuddered.

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It had been about a week since Mel had been kidnapped, and in that time, things had pretty much gone back to normal. Although she had been acting somewhat strangely since she had come back, though none of her family members thought it to be anything of worry—it had been Mel's first time in a life-or-death situation, and it was bound to affect her in a profound way. They had all been there at one point or another.

Because of that, it was decided that no more demon chasing or fighting was going to happen for a while. Even though Wyatt and Chris could have easily gone off and done more of it, neither of them was particularly itching to.

…And Chris, after what had happened, was slightly more reluctant to just go out and attack demons now. Part of him wondered if the fact that they had tried to go out and get a number of demons with Mel had been the reason why they had been targeted with that spell. Not that it mattered much now; she had vanquished the one that had cast it on them. Why else would they have kidnapped her? He didn't really want to think about it in particular.

Instead he wanted to think about trying to get out there and be social again. It had been a while since he had talked to any of his friends, but usually every time he called them, they seemed to be out or busy. He couldn't blame them for not wanting to talk to him, though. The sheer number of times he had had to cancel on them because 'something had come up', or there was a 'family emergency'…it was a wonder he still had people to talk to and hang out with nowadays.

But today, Chris was determined to get out and just _do_ something. He wasn't sure what yet, exactly, only knowing that he wanted it to be social, and that entailed getting onto campus and wandering around a bit, maybe getting some coffee at the café, or sitting in the student union, pretending to do schoolwork.

It was a hot day outside—surprisingly hot for a Friday May afternoon—and Chris had chosen to dress in pretty basic clothes: just some jeans, sneakers and a slate gray t-shirt. He headed down the stairs with his phone in hand, and was just about to head out the front door when he heard someone behind him giggling. He realized right away that it was Mel. He wasn't sure what she was doing home, since she should have still been in school.

Apparently, she didn't think that she was going to have company. She had come in through the back way in the kitchen, and was stepping into the dining room when Chris saw her. The worst part about it was the fact that she wasn't _alone_.

No, scratch that, he thought. The worst part was that he _recognized_ the guy that she was with. And it made something inside him do a flip.

"Mel, what the hell are you doing home?" Chris blurted out, dropping his phone on the table beside the front door and heading through to the sitting room.

Mel, who had her arm wrapped around the waist of the guy in question, stopped in her tracks, looking caught off guard. "Chris? What're _you_ doing home?"

"I asked you first. And why the hell is _he_ with you?" Chris pointed at the guy. How in the world she had managed to meet one of the men in his Psychology class was _beyond_ him. He didn't even want to ask. He was too busy staring at the nose ring and dyed hair that the other guy was sporting.

"Hey, do I know you?" he asked.

Chris restrained from making a face. "We've got a class together, I think."

"Chris, I had _no_ idea," Mel said. There wasn't, however, any remorse apparent in her voice. It almost seemed like she sounded intrigued and even more amused by the fact that the two of them knew each other.

"You still didn't answer my question. What're you doing home so early?" He stared at his sister.

"None of your business," Mel shot back almost immediately. "In fact, I don't recall you being my keeper, so why do you care?"

"Because it's a school day," Chris said, mock sarcasm dripping off of his words. "You should be in class."

"Wow, didn't know I had to go _every_ day."

"Yeah, that's kind of the idea." The elder Halliwell shook his head. "You go every day, you do your schoolwork, and then you come home and screw around later."

"Well, we're not all as uptight about things as you are, Chris."

Bristling a little, Chris folded his arms over his chest. "Ha. Ha."

For a moment, everything was silent. And then came, "She's just gonna have a little fun, man, what's the problem?"

"The problem, _man_, is that she should be in class right now. How did you two even meet, anyways? He's older than I am, Mel!"

"Why does it matter how we met, Chris?" Mel glared at her older brother. "Just because _you_ can't get a date and are constantly prudish doesn't mean that _I_ have to be! I've got a life! God! Get out there and live your _own_! Stop interfering with everyone else's!"

Mel's words had shocked Chris into silence. The only reason he stayed quiet was because she had made a really good point. And that hurt.

He watched as she and the other guy walked past him and out the front door. Not surprisingly, Melinda slammed it behind her. Chris continued to stare at it for a few seconds before he abruptly pounded his fist on the table that was behind the couch in the sitting room. His fist was throbbing afterward, but he didn't care. He was mad, and worst of all, his pride was wounded. There couldn't have been anything worse than hearing that you interfered with others' lives because you didn't have much of one to call your own.

"Damn it," he cursed under his breath.

So much for going out and being social, he thought. No, now Chris had another mission in mind. He was going to prove her wrong, even if _she_ wasn't going to know about it yet.

And even if he had no idea how in the hell he was going to do it.

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Lilandra stared into the slightly foggy bowl, watching the scene between Chris and Melinda unfold. It wasn't long before she saw Chris heading out the door that had just been slammed. When nothing else seemed to happen, she waved her hand over the bowl, and then stepped away from it, biting her lip. Things were progressing along really well—better than she thought that they would. The way Mel was acting wasn't much different than she normally was…not from what she knew.

She paused. With Mel acting the way she was, she was sufficiently distracted, and that meant that the Power of Three had, in fact, been reduced back down to the Power of Two. And even with Wyatt's immense strength, Chris, too, was now distracted, and that was going to make things easier for her. In her ultimate quest to get rid of the three of them, she knew that dividing and conquering was going to be the easiest. One by one, picking them off…

But she was greedy, too, even if she didn't really think so. She wanted their powers, each and every one of them. The _Grimoire_, however, didn't have power stripping potions or spells, or even any ways of acquiring power-stealing athames. Though she didn't understand _why_, exactly. Perhaps since there were other ways of stealing powers…

She didn't have the time to search for any athames, however, and the only way to get power stripping spells or potions was by getting the _Book of Shadows_. That was going to take weakening the family bond as much as she could. Thankfully, she was on that path. All she needed to do now was find a way to get both Wyatt and Chris feeling strong, unfocused emotions. That way, it would be easier to get them angry with each other, and with that…the Power of Three would be broken, and she could access the _Book_. With any luck, she would be able to keep the book for herself, too…

The question was, however, what to do? Chris was clearly focused on something else, and whatever it was, it wasn't magical. But it needed to be. She needed to hit him close to home, somewhere that would surely make him suffer.

That was when it hit her. Lilandra's thin lips curled into an undeniable smile. There was obviously someone important in Chris' life that _wasn't_ family. And all she needed to do was nix that…

It was all falling into place.

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Chris was halfway down the street before he stopped, realizing that he hadn't even the slightest clue as to what in the world he was going to do to prove his sister wrong. He had been so angry by what she had said that the urge to do something about it had just taken him over—but he hadn't really _thought_ about it, or how. No, if he had, he wouldn't have been standing there in the middle of the sidewalk feeling suddenly confused.

He needed to find Landon. But how?

That was when he remembered the card that Landon had given him right before he had left. The memory of what he had said, too, popped into Chris' head, and that made him look down at the cement. He couldn't really be mad at Wyatt for that. It had been for family, and Mel…even if he didn't want to admit it at the moment, was still more important than his own personal life.

Turning around, Chris made his way back to the manor and stepped inside. He headed up the stairs and into his room, but he paused. What had he done with it? Was it still in that pair of pants? No, he told himself, it couldn't have been. If it had, his mom probably would have noticed it, since she pulled everything out of their pockets and put them into those little baskets above the washer and dryer. He had checked that, and it wasn't there.

So then what the hell had he done with it?

It was nearly impossible for him to backtrack that far. It had been about a week before, and so much had happened that night that he could barely remember anything aside from passing out up in the attic from lack of sleep.

All of a sudden, it hit him. Chris headed over toward his nightstand, pulling out the drawer. Inside were a few different things—a few sticky notes, a pen, a crystal—but where was it? He dug a little bit deeper inside, and sure enough, there it was. Pulling it out, Chris clutched it in his hand. He hadn't actually looked at it when he had first gotten it, instead opting to just toss it into his nightstand drawer. He remembered that.

It was Landon's business card. His last name was on it—Bailey—along with his business address, phone number, fax number, and his company's name. Chris hadn't ever heard of it before. But for Landon to have a business card…he had to have been relatively high in the company. That was his thinking, anyways.

Reaching into his pocket, Chris pulled out his phone and dialed Landon's number. But he didn't press the send button right away. Granted, what he had done was…really nice; it felt good to have that kind of freedom. He didn't want to just call Landon up for the sole reason of proving his sister wrong, though. When it came to doing things out of spite and for proof, all it did was ruin them. No, he decided that this call was going to be a social one, which was for his own good. Mel wasn't going to know about this.

Self-satisfaction was more than okay at this point.

When he hit the send button, Chris brought the phone up to his ear, hearing the familiar ringing. With each passing one he felt himself growing a bit more nervous, and in turn, a little frustrated with himself. It wasn't like this was an impossible task, so he didn't know why he was getting so worked up over it.

Shortly thereafter the somewhat familiar voice of Landon appeared over the line. "This is Landon."

"H-Hey," Chris said, although slightly hesitant at first. "It's, uh, Chris. From the club."

"Oh…hey, Chris. Yeah, I remember you. What's up?"

"Not much. I was just…calling to see what you were up to, see maybe if you wanted to hang out sometime. Sorry it took me so long to call."

Landon chuckled. "Nah, no worries, man. I'm surprised you called, actually. Didn't think your brother was gonna let you."

Chris snorted. "Yeah, my brother…isn't my keeper. Like you said. We just had a family emergency and he was short on patience. That's him, though." More like me, he thought with a pursing of his lips.

"Oh, I know how those go. But!" Landon cleared his throat. "I'm on my lunch break right now, getting something to eat. You wanna meet somewhere tonight? I don't have much to do and I was thinking of a night on the town, just hanging out."

Chris could hear the sounds of traffic and people coming from the other end of the line. Wherever Landon was, it was busy. His guess would have been the financial district. "Y-Yeah, yeah, that'd work," he said.

"Awesome. There's this really good club I went to just a week or two ago. It's called P3. I'm sure you've heard of it; it's pretty popular. What would you say to going there?"

Chris swallowed hard. What would he say to going there? His instincts were to say no, because his mother owned that club. Well, only technically. Billie ran it more now than his mom did, because Piper had to focus her attention on her restaurant. Billie had offered to help take care of the club since she liked it so much, and since most of the family did as well. It was a part of their history.

He doubted, though, that he was going to see any of them there, least of all Billie. She had a family to take care of too, so it wasn't likely that she would be spending a lot of time at P3 doing things that she could do from home.

He finally settled on saying, "Sounds great. Haven't been there in a while, so I'm curious to see how things have changed." It was only a little white lie, that. He had been there not too long ago, but Landon didn't need to know that. All he knew was that they had thrown him a party. He would eventually have to tell him his last name, though—and that alone was going to make it easy enough to put two and two together.

"Awesome. We can meet up at the club then around like…nine? So we can enjoy it before it gets too packed. How's that work for you?"

A small grin had worked its way onto Chris' face. "Sounds great. I'll meet you inside the club, all right? I'll be at the bar."

"Great. See you then."

"See you."

After he hung up, he wasn't really sure as to how he felt. Relieved? Excited? Somewhere in between. He also felt a little _smug_.

So much for not being able to have his own life. Mel would have to eat her words.

Well. If he told her.


	8. Chapter 8

Author's Notes: It's getting more and more heated! Mwahaha. Just wait and see what happens...

Don't own them, as always!

* * *

The day's heat had faded into a warm evening by the time that Chris had gotten ready to go out. Not surprisingly, neither Wyatt nor Melinda were home, nor were either of his parents. His mom had called to let anyone at the manor know that she was catering a business dinner at her restaurant that night and would be home late, and Leo had dropped in sometime after Chris' phone call with Landon to tell him that he was going to be grading papers and working on lesson plans at Magic School. 

As such, Chris had the manor basically to himself for the afternoon and majority of the evening. It had given him a good amount of free time to do his schoolwork. He hadn't realized just how much he had to do that weekend. But, it was getting close to finals, and his professors—particularly his classical literature professor—liked to give more readings than most normal people could get through. By the time to meet with Landon had arrived, he hadn't even managed to plow through half of it all. It was more than a little disconcerting.

Granted, he had been somewhat distracted by various thoughts at hand—Landon, his sister, that freak she had been with, among a few other things. So he was proud of himself for getting as far as he had. It was better than not getting anything done at all.

Just shortly after eight-thirty that evening, Chris went upstairs to maybe change his outfit. This was clearly a date, and usually from what he had seen with Wyatt and Mel, going out on actual dates meant dressing a little nicer than usual. But they were going to a club, which was casual. After swaying back and forth on it for a few moments he finally decided against it. He wasn't going to stress out over this, because it wasn't that big of a deal. If he made it out to be one, then things were going to be uncomfortable and tense.

He just needed to let loose like he had planned to, but keep it under control so that there wasn't a repeat of what had happened not too long ago when he had first met Landon. That he could do.

Putting his wallet into one front pocket and his phone into the other, Chris then headed into the bathroom to look himself over. He had a mild five o'clock shadow and his somewhat short brown hair was a little unkempt. He looked fine in his eyes. If he tried to shave again it was just going to tear his face up, and that was one of the last things that he needed at the moment.

He heaved a sort of calming sigh. It was now or never. Chris focused on P3, and soon he felt that familiar sense of weightlessness as he orbed out of the house and toward his destination. The back room—the one that was always locked on the outside—was where he was heading for, as that was their safe spot to orb to. And as he had expected, it was dim and empty inside upon his arrival, which made his slipping into P3 that much easier. Nobody seemed to notice that he had just come out of a locked room.

Chris knew that he had left a little earlier than their scheduled meeting time. It had been an intentional move. He stepped towards the bar and ordered himself just a small shot of rum, figuring that if he couldn't get himself to loosen up entirely, a shot or two would help him. He downed it quickly, trying not to wince at the way that it felt as it went down his throat. Given his rather low tolerance, that was more than likely going to be enough to help him. He would just have to give it time.

While he waited, Chris chatted casually with one of the bartenders that was working that night, Sam. Sam was a student at the same college Chris went to and was paying her way through bartending, and she seemed pretty nice. They had had a class together—basic Biology—and had relied on each other from time to time for notes and study sessions. They had both managed to pass the class, too.

He glanced down at his watch after what felt like just a few minutes of chatting with her. He was surprised to find that it was almost nine o'clock. Curious, he glanced over his shoulder, and did so just in time to see Landon stepping down the stairs and into the club.

"I've got to get back to work," Sam said, but she smiled. "Good talking to you, though. See you around campus maybe?"

Chris nodded. "Yeah, good talking to you, too. I'll be around."

"All righty, Chris. See you later!"

As Sam headed off to help someone with a drink order Chris saw Landon moving closer, until finally the two of them were side by side. He had made a move to stand but when he saw Landon already going to sit, he changed his mind.

Landon tapped his hands against the bar top. "You haven't been waiting long, have you?"

"Not really, no," Chris said. It was a lie, but it wasn't like it mattered. He had found a good way to pass the time. "Just got here a few minutes ago. How's it going?" What a stupid question, he thought to himself.

"It's going. It's nice to get out and just hang out, though, Jesus." Landon waved down one of the other bartenders, ordered himself a drink and then looked to Chris. "You want anything?"

"Uh…" He paused. "I'll pass for now, but thanks."

Once the bartender was gone, Landon continued. "It's been a pretty busy week. Lots of paperwork signings and dealing with irate people. Shitty, but you know how it goes."

"Dealing with irate people? Oh, yeah, I know how that goes." Chris thought back to his sister and to that freak she had left the house with. On top of that, there was another charge of his who had been giving him trouble. Thankfully, though, he seemed to be doing fine and as such, wasn't bugging Chris any. "Some people can be a real damn handful."

"You're telling me!" With his newly given drink now in hand, Landon downed the shot, then laughed. "So…we don't have to worry about your brother popping in, right?"

It was clear by the look on his face that he was joking, however Chris was still a little caught off guard by it. For all he knew, it was entirely possible that they would see Wyatt tonight. He hoped to God that they wouldn't, though. "Hopefully not. He likes to come here, too, but last I heard he was going out on a date on the other side of the city."

"Good. Then there won't be any repeats of last time. Cause I gotta tell you," Landon leaned in, and he nudged Chris' shoulder, "you're…something else. I'm glad you called."

Despite himself, Chris turned a little red. He hadn't ever gotten that kind of compliment before, and he didn't know how to react to it. So he just let his lips curl into a small grin. "Well, I could say the same. So." And that much was true. He remembered that night and what it was like. He knew that he wouldn't mind a slight repeat of it.

"Come on, then, dude. Let's dance."

Right around the time that Landon stood up, the live band singing had just begun their new song, which had a real upbeat tone to it. Like before, Chris could almost feel the music, and on the dance floor—he had made sure to move far enough from the bar and the stairwell for comfort reasons—his body was beginning to respond to it. He looked around at the other people, especially Landon, for cues on what kind of dancing was best. It hadn't occurred to him to stop using his head and just let his body go with it. But he was trying.

The two of them danced at a pretty even pace throughout the entire song, and just far enough apart for them to move around when they wanted to, and where they wanted to. When it ended it was time for the live band to take their short break, during which the music switched over to one of the MP3s on the list server. The DJ had chosen some pretty dance-beat tempo techno, and the song sounded somewhat similar to the one that Chris had danced to with Landon the last time they had met up.

As the music progressed they got closer, and Landon became more daring in his moves. His hands would grip Chris' for a short period of time before they would move toward his waist, and they would dance with their bodies surprisingly close to one another. Chris couldn't believe that he was actually dancing so well—or this close—without having some sort of inhibitor on him that kept his over-thinking side away. But, he supposed that was because of the shot he had taken not so long ago.

It wasn't too long thereafter that Chris found himself with his hands moving out, to the sides, or forward toward Landon. He feigned touching the soft material of the other's shirt when he was clearly feeling for something else, just touching and feeling in general. He was feeling a little winded, but that didn't matter. He was having _fun_, and he hadn't felt _that_ in an awfully long time.

Eventually Landon had caught on to the way Chris was acting and the two of them moved close enough together that both of them had their arms wrapped loosely through one another's, with Landon's on the outside and Chris' on the inside. Feeling the way that the older one's hips were moving helped to keep him in sync with the music, and in sync with him. Their faces hadn't moved close enough yet, but that was Chris' doing. He would look at Landon every so often but his eyes were mostly everywhere else—on the floor, on the other people, on the bar…it was an unconscious habit of checking out his surroundings to make sure everything was all right.

When the live band came on and switched to something a little bit less danceable and more soft ballad, Chris and Landon finally came to a standing halt, but their bodies were still close together. Even though he knew that they could be seen by just about anyone, that didn't seem to make him freak out any. Instead, he found himself feeling almost flippant about it.

"Come on, let's go sit down," he suggested.

It was needless to say that Landon didn't hesitate. When he and Chris walked over to the more secluded seating area, they sat on one of the cushy loveseats, though this time, there was no immediate kissing or anything of the like. This was fun and all, but that reasonable side was beginning to rear its head again. Chris wanted to know more about Landon, because he was curious. Although he and Landon were sitting relatively close, it was obvious by Chris' stance on the loveseat—he was turned and facing the other with one of his legs up and under him—that he wasn't looking for anything at the moment.

"How'd you like the band?" Landon asked.

"Got one of their song files on my phone, actually," Chris said. He pulled it out of his pocket and poked at the screen to find the file. It started playing a few seconds afterward, after which he stopped it.

Landon peeked over the screen. "My number in there yet?"

Chris snorted, amused. "Funny you should ask that. I actually wanted to sit down here and get to know you a little better. I…don't…usually do what I did the other night." It had been embarrassing to think that he had acted so crazy about it, even if he had been under a spell.

"Didn't figure," Landon replied. "It was nice, though. Not gonna lie."

Chris laughed. "Yeah, it was great. But that's just not what I normally do. Tonight…well. More or less. Just having fun, enjoying myself."

"Nothing wrong with that, especially on a Friday."

"Nope, not at all." Chris half-smiled. "But, anyways. I…don't even think you really know who I am, outside of Chris." He snorted again. "I'm Chris…Halliwell."

Landon's expression changed suddenly. He looked surprised. "Chris _Halliwell_? Wait, you're related to Piper Halliwell?"

Chris nodded. "Good old mom."

Landon laughed. "Holy fucking shit, that's awesome. So you mom owns this place? And that restaurant, too? You've got a great little niche here, don't you? Free drinks and free food. People would kill for that kind of stuff."

"You're telling me." There were a lot of people Chris knew, namely Wyatt's friends, who tried to get free drinks all the time from P3. And the unfortunate thing was that they usually got them, at least one or two apiece. It added up after a while. "Usually it's capped at one free drink and maybe one appetizer, I think is what my mom said."

Landon laughed again. "Yeah, well, your mom's a smart woman. Good way to keep her businesses afloat." He shook his head, scratching the side of it afterward. "Man, I can't believe I didn't realize who you were. I've seen you in the articles about the restaurant and about your mom, too. And your dad, and brother, and sister…you've got a pretty famous family."

Chris' immediate response was "Don't remind me", but he threw in a chuckle afterwards to make it sound not quite so annoyed. They were well known in the mortal world and even more so in the magical community. There were textbooks that had passages about them all written in there. It was scary to think about sometimes, but that was what happened when you were the child of a Charmed One.

"So tell me a little bit more about you," Chris said, wanting to switch the light off of him and onto the other.

Landon scratched at his goatee. "Well, hm. What's there to say about me? Name's Landon, Landon Bailey. I'm twenty-five. Graduated from college a few years ago and I've been working with this advertisement company for a while. Got two brothers—both younger than me. Mom and dad are divorced. And…" he shrugged, "that's about it."

Well, working in advertisement would explain the business card with all of the information on it, Chris thought. And twenty-five wasn't bad. Landon was only four years older than him. "I'm twenty-one," he stated suddenly, but offhandedly.

Landon didn't seem to care much. "So are you still in school?"

"Yeah. I've got about another year or two to go, I think." Like his Aunt Phoebe, Chris was studying Psychology, if only because he didn't really know what else there was out there that he wanted to do. There were…plenty of other things that would be occupying his time in the future, he was sure.

"Not too bad, not too bad. You still living at home?"

Chris nodded. "Yeah…same manor on Prescott. M'sure you've seen pictures of it in the paper. I'm related to Phoebe Hal—"

"You're related to Phoebe Halliwell, too?" Landon sounded almost as if his jaw were going to come unhinged. "Man. I should have guessed that. Still, that's awesome. She's your…she'd be your aunt, right?"

"Yeah. She—" Just as he was about to continue on, a piercingly loud cry for help flooded his head. Chris winced and hunched over from it, having not been expecting it at all.

He felt Landon's hand on his shoulder, who helped him to sit up straight again. "Whoa, Chris, you all right?"

No, Chris thought. No, he wasn't all right. That painful cry was from Sophie, and she sounded like she was in real danger. It couldn't have come at a more awkward time, but she needed him, and as much as he hated having to leave, his obligation to his charge—to his _friend_—was much more important than any date.

"Actually, no, I'm feeling…really lightheaded all of the sudden," Chris said. He slowly moved to stand. "I'll be right back."

"…Okay. Want me to help you to the bathroom, dude?"

"No, no, it's okay. I got it."

Chris planned on coming back, for sure. Whatever demon had made the mistake of attacking his charge was going to pay for it, and with their life. He wobbled some and stumbled while he walked, thanks to more cries in his head from Sophie, but he managed to get himself to the bathroom.

This demon was going down.

---------------------------------------------------------------------

Sophie's cries inside his head quieted down once Chris managed to orb to where she was. He immediately recognized it as a pathway through a park, though he didn't know which one it actually was. All he knew was that nobody was around, and he figured that she must have been walking home from work. The store that she worked at was just off in the distance. That meant that this demon must have been waiting for her…

"Sophie?" Chris called. He couldn't see her anywhere…where had she gone? Was she hiding?

Out of the corner of his eye he noticed a flash of movement. Just as he started running toward it, there was a sudden scream; he felt an overwhelming pain in his chest, almost like he was being stabbed. He staggered over to a nearby tree, clutching the area right over his heart. A wheezing breath escaped him.

"Sophie…" he grunted.

But he had to dredge on. Pushing himself up and away from the tree, he struggled to get himself closer to the spot where he had seen the movement. He managed to get himself past the bushes that were in his way, which gave way to a cement walking path. There was a demon standing there, hunched over, and before he was able to use his power on it they were shimmering away.

Chris stood there for a moment, still clutching his chest, when what he saw next made him sick to his stomach. He almost dove forward and toward Sophie's body, reaching out to check and see if she still had a pulse. Her skin was warm, flushed, and there was blood dribbling out of a stab wound right below her ribs.

"G-God, Sophie," Chris stuttered. She still had a pulse, and he could feel her moving beneath him. "Don't move, don't move! You're gonna make it worse. I—" His heart, still pained, was now beginning to beat rapidly; he could feel adrenaline pumping through his system.

God, why couldn't he _heal_ yet?

"Wyatt!" he shouted. "Wyatt!"

Nobody came. Chris cupped the back of Sophie's head and tried to lift it, only to make her groan and cough in response. He paused, holding her in place.

His voice became more desperate. "Wyatt, damn it, please!"

Where the _hell_ was his brother?

After a couple more moments of waiting, Chris realized that it was useless. Wyatt wasn't answering his call, which meant that he wasn't at home. That nixed orbing there. He had no idea whether or not his Aunt Paige was even home, or would even be able to hear him calling for her, if she was busy. It was worth a shot. She was his last chance at this point.

"C-Chris—" Sophie began to say. She stopped speaking and slowly reached up to grip his hand.

"Hang in there, Sophie, come on…come on. We'll get you healed, I promise." Chris, holding back anxious and frustrated tears at the moment, returned the grip and focused as best he could on his Aunt Paige's house.

When he and Sophie rematerialized on the floor of his aunt's living room not too long after, he looked around him to see if anyone was there. He doubted that Henry would be, but he was desperate at this point.

"Aunt Paige!" he called, "Aunt Paige, are you here?"

Nobody came right away. Although reluctantly, Chris let go of Sophie's hand and moved to stand. The pain in his chest had mostly faded away, but it was still there, prickling at him, hurting him. He hurriedly stepped through the archway that led into the entrance hall, down which he ran, pushing the door to the kitchen open. Nobody was in there, either.

"_Aunt Paige_!" Chris' cries had become yells now—frustrated, worried yells. He turned around and bound out of the kitchen, moving toward the staircase and then dashing up it. But he stopped abruptly at the sight of one of the doors swinging open fast. Out of it came his Aunt Paige, who had a brush in her hand. He noticed his Uncle Henry fumbling around on the bed behind her.

"Chris, what's wrong?" she asked worriedly.

"Downstairs," was all he said.

He didn't even try to run and instead simply orbed there, landing at Sophie's side. His Aunt Paige joined him not but a moment later. She, too, knelt down and looked over his charge.

"Heal her," he said. His voice was somewhere between a command and a request—shaking and trembling as it was.

When Paige stuck her hands out to try and heal Sophie, the familiar golden glow didn't come. Chris looked at his aunt expectantly, worriedly—why wasn't it working? Sophie was still alive, he knew it. She was hanging in there.

Paige tried once more, but nothing happened. Chris knew what she was going to say when she pulled her hands back and he looked away, not wanting to meet her eyes.

"Chris…" she said quietly.

"_No_," he said. "No, she's _not_dead. Damn it, _no_." He swallowed roughly then. His throat was sore, strained; he was holding back tears and it was starting to hurt, and badly, almost like he was going to choke.

Paige reached out and gripped his forearm, and at first he resisted, but soon he gave in. Silent tears trickled down his cheeks and he began sniffing more and more, an obvious sign that he was beginning to cry. Paige moved so that they were both standing, and when they were she gave him a tight hug. Chris didn't respond to it so well at first.

He eventually pulled back from it to wipe at his eyes with his wrists. He didn't know what to say. But he could see the pain in his aunt's eyes, too.

She looked down. "I'm so sorry."


	9. Chapter 9

Author's Notes: Charmed4eva112, those are some good questions! Except I can't...confirm or deny any of them without giving away plot, and that's not right ;) Mwahaha. Here's chapter nine, though! So! Please enjoy, as always!! (Don't own them, either!)

I'm sure this will be shocking enough for the lot of you!

* * *

Chris couldn't sleep that night. After he and his Aunt Paige had taken care of Sophie—which had been hard for him—he orbed right back to the manor, not even realizing that he had left Landon at the club all alone and by himself. He was sufficiently distracted, frustrated, uncomfortable, and depressed enough for it to slip his mind with little difficulty. It wasn't exactly the best mood to be in, either. Both of his siblings were out, as it was a Friday night, but his mom and dad were still at home. They had tried to speak with him about what had happened; Chris, however, didn't want anything to do with it. This was the first charge that he had ever lost, and he was taking it hard. 

Through some miracle—and the help of Nyquil—he was able to get to sleep that night. But his mind was racked with guilt; guilt that manifested itself in dreams that replayed what had happened, and that inserted other charges of his into Sophie's position. They became worse and worse until he finally awoke with a start, bolting upright in his bed. He ran his hand over his face and down his chest, both of which were covered with a light sheen of sweat. He could feel the pounding of his heart everywhere in his body, and it made it hard to swallow. For a moment, he felt nauseous, like he was going to throw up.

Chris looked to his right. Wyatt was lying in his own bed on top of his covers, and was fast asleep. According to the clock on the nightstand it was just after two in the morning. And, from the looks of it, Wyatt was still wearing his street clothes. He must have just gotten home. Chris felt a sudden urge of anger and dislike inside of him; he had no right to be mad at Wyatt for what had happened—it had been his own fault for not orbing Sophie right away to someone who could heal—but still, he couldn't help being angry about it. He felt almost betrayed, which he knew was overdoing it.

It wasn't something he was proud of.

He knew that it was going to be hard to go back to bed feeling as he was, and so Chris slowly crawled out of bed, quietly heading out into the hallway. Being out of his warm sheets and comforter helped to get him feeling a little less flustered, because he didn't feel so confined. That was one of the good things about the manor: even with as many people living in it as there were, it still felt open and not quite as claustrophobic as beds and sheets did.

Once Chris was downstairs, he looked around, rubbing at his eyes. He had no idea what he wanted to do—he just knew that he needed to get up and do _something_. Food was out of the question, since he still felt somewhat sick...and he could feel the slight beginning of a headache, so he didn't want to watch television. About the only thing there _was_ to do was just walk around the manor or maybe lie down on the couch in the parlor. The latter didn't sound all that bad, really…it would be nice and cool, and probably more comfortable than his own bed for the time being.

Grabbing one of the pillows from the couch in the sitting room—it was more comfortable than the ones on the other couch—he headed into the parlor and reached down to push off the fluffy, trimmed pillows off onto the floor. He didn't understand why his mother had those, even for decoration. What was more, he didn't understand why his dad _let_ them be there. Then, his dad didn't seem to have much say in the decoration of the manor…so that was probably why.

He crawled onto the couch then, stretching out a little bit. It was going to take a minute to find a comfortable position, especially since he felt somewhat…antsy, like his body couldn't sit still. It must have been the adrenaline that was coursing through him from the vividness of the dream he had had moments before waking up. The moment he closed his eyes the images from his dreams came popping back into his head. Chris opened his eyes up immediately, then almost groaned. Maybe a little more Nyquil would fix things.

Just as he was about to get up, he heard something rustling around in the bushes nearby. Normally he would have ignored it, but it sounded like something much bigger than just a raccoon or a cat. It might have been a dog…only that wouldn't explain why he saw something tall moving by the windows and door across the way and through into the conservatory.

Something that looked like…a _person_.

Chris sat up right away and got up, albeit very, very slowly. The last thing he wanted to do was notify the person out there that someone could see them. The conservatory's white walls and white floor tended to cast an eerie sort of pale light through into the sitting room, dining room and parlor, which would make it easier for them to see him if he moved too suddenly. He opted to go through the foyer and around, because cutting through the conservatory would give him nowhere to hide. It was one of the reasons he didn't just orb, too.

God, he thought, he didn't need this right now. With his luck, it was going to be some mortal thief that was trying to break into their house because they thought they could. Well, they had another thing coming, that was for sure.

He had just made it into the dining room when he heard the sound of the conservatory door latch clicking, and the familiar squeaking of its hinges. The sound of an unfamiliar voice—a female's—entered his ears. Chris swallowed hard. Whoever they were hadn't even messed with the lock on the door! It confused him a little, because he didn't know of any demons that wouldn't just shimmer or blink inside. And ones that would attack this late at night…they usually had something very specific in mind, and it was usually something sinister.

Without even thinking of waiting, Chris jumped away from his hiding spot behind the wall and stuck his hand out, prepared to attack the demon with full force. He was glad that he didn't use his telekinesis right away, however, because who he saw standing there nearly made him do a double take.

"_Mel_?"

Chris' baby sister, Melinda, was standing in the conservatory, looking mighty confused. But that confusion soon turned into apparent discomfort and slight irritation when she glanced at her brother's hand. She folded her arms over her chest. "Were you going to _attack _me?"

Chris put his hand back at his side. "I thought you were a demon." He shook his head. "What the hell are you doing up so late? And what were you doing outside?"

"None of your damn business," Mel snapped petulantly. She started heading for the stairs not too far away. "I'm gonna head up to bed."

"Like hell you are."

The elder Halliwell slid to the side to block his sister's path. When Melinda tried going the other way, Chris slid that way. The two of them did this a few more times before she finally groaned in frustration and pushed at her brother's chest.

"Get out of my way, Chris, I'm tired and I want to go to _bed_."

Chris narrowed his eyebrows. "You were home earlier, Mel. So why were you out there?"

"I told you to _get_ out of my way." She pushed at him again, but with more force this time, which caused him to waiver just the tiniest bit.

He clearly didn't like it. "Was someone else out there with you?"

"I wasn't out there with anyone else, Chris._Jesus_." Mel sounded clearly exasperated now. "Do you have to freaking _spy_ on me now? You couldn't be any more pathetic, do you know that? You're absolutely freaking _pathetic_."

Before Chris realized what he had done, his hand was out and he pushed at his sister's stomach, using his telekinesis. Melinda went flying across the dining room and conservatory floors, coming in contact with one of the potted plants near the large, painted windows. She landed on one of them and caused them all to stumble and fall over with a loud crashing noise.

"I am _sick_," Chris began, stepping forward, "so freaking _sick_, of dealing with your _shit_, Mel. I'm sick of you treating me like crap; sick of you thinking that all I do is nag; sick of you telling me that I have no life, that I'll never have one, or that I'm pathetic. Because you know what? It isn't true. It's _not_. But if you're going to treat me like shit then you might as well get used to the same feeling."

His outburst could have been attributed to quite a few different things—the stress of having lost a charge; dealing with the issue of himself and Landon; dealing with his siblings, Mel in particular; caring for his family…but whatever it was, it had made Chris do something that he hadn't ever believed himself capable of doing. And in a way, it felt good. But just the same, he could feel guilt bubbling up in the back of his head.

That was quickly erased at the feeling of a sudden combustion near ribs, one that caused him to stumble back and twirl into one of the dining room table chairs. Although he couldn't see it—his focus was shot for the moment—he could hear his sister getting up and moving across the floor towards him. His first attack had been purely unprovoked, but now it was going to be in self-defense. He waved his hand at her and used his telekinesis again, hearing her shout out as she flew back into the conservatory with a thud.

This gave Chris just enough time to stand up and recuperate. He was feeling his wound when he saw his sister preparing to attack him again. He stuck up his hands. "Do it again and I swear to God, I'll orb you into the freaking port."

Melinda paused, her hands out in front of her. She was glaring daggers. "Only someone like you would attack their own_family_. You're such a traitor."

Despite the anger that roared inside of him—the kind that made him want to throw his sister through the window and into the yard—something stopped him, and that something was the fact that he had never, _ever_ in his lifetime heard his sister speak to _anyone_ that coldly. Even when the two of them had been at each other's throats, it had never elevated to this bad of a level.

"This isn't you," Chris said, but slowly, as it dawned on him.

"Of course it's me you idiot," Mel said. "Who else would it be?"

"No…no." He looked at her, but carefully this time. He didn't approach her, however. "Something's got you, Mel. Something bad. I need to figure out what it is." The second he went to move he noticed her hands jerking, and his reaction was instantaneous. Chris shouted "Chair!" and pointed at Mel, then to the chair in the conservatory not too far away. His sister turned into a bundle of orbs before landing in the chair rather abruptly. Before she could do anything he stepped toward her, pointing, while saying, "_In that chair bound you shall stay, and…you will do nothing until I say_!"

It was as if ropes had tied Melinda in place, keeping her still while Chris turned around. He heard footsteps rushing down the stairs, and his mom, along with his dad and brother, all came bounding down the steps and into the sitting room.

"_Chris_!" Piper exclaimed in surprise.

"Something's got her, Mom, something—"

"Is there a demon in the house?" Wyatt, though it was obvious by his swaying stature and somewhat groggy tone that he was tired, stared down into the foyer. Leo headed through the dining room into the kitchen, while Piper approached her son and carefully touched the area around his wound.

Chris hissed a bit from the pain. "_Mom_—"

"—Chris, what _happened_?"

"Something's got a hold on Mel!" he finally managed to get out. "Something—I don't know what it is, but she—" All he could do then was point into the conservatory, where his sister was.

Piper noticed her stuck in the chair there, and she gave Chris a confused look before going towards her daughter. She flicked the light on, which caused Chris, along with Wyatt, to groan, due to the sudden brightness.

"Melinda—"

"She can't respond, Mom." Chris, still sort of gingerly touching the wound on his chest, headed into the conservatory, squinting. "I put a bind on her. Not her powers, but just…everything, until I said otherwise."

"Well, say otherwise!" Piper ordered.

"I don't think I should." It was brave to stand against his mother like that, but Chris felt very adamant about this. And when he saw the near violent look his mother gave him he stuck his hands up. "Let me explain first. Like I said, I think something's got a hold on her."

Around this time, Leo reappeared from the kitchen. "Everything's f…ine." He paused right at the moment he came into the conservatory. "What's going on?"

"Chris thinks something's got a hold on Melinda," Piper said, though she sounded a little exasperated. "And I'm tempted to undo his spell so that I can see if he's right."

"What…his spell?" Leo turned to Chris, but after Piper told him what he did, it made Leo frown. "You did what?"

There wasn't any time for this, Chris thought. Angrily, he said, "I put a freaking binding spell on her, okay? Would you people just _listen _to me?"

"Chris," Piper began, and with that chastising, yet loving tone that he had come to recognize quite well, "you've been under a lot of stress tonight. Why don't you just undo the spell and we can figure it out from there?"

It finally hit him. "Freeze her," he said. He pointed at Mel. "Watch. Freeze her, and I'll undo the spell. You'll see. Good witches don't freeze, and I don't think there's much of anything good in her right now."

Although there was clearly uncertainty in Piper's eyes, she did exactly what he asked, and she froze Melinda in place. She didn't move any more than she had before, however. Wyatt, who had come into the conservatory through the sitting room, had his arms folded over his chest and yawned.

"Did you just fall asleep in your clothes?" Leo asked him.

"I just got home about an hour ago," Wyatt said, and he shrugged.

"Undo it," Piper said to her younger son.

Chris sighed. "All right. _You are now…free from my bind. Don't…make me do it again…next time._"

There was a light blue flickered that traced over Melinda before disappearing completely. She, however, did not move when the spell effect wore off. Chris almost wanted to smile smugly, but he didn't see anything good about the fact that his sister had been frozen. Whatever was inside of her must have been pretty damn bad.

"You were right…" Piper stepped toward her daughter, kneeling down carefully to look at her. "I should have noticed the look in her eyes, too. This isn't Mel. Something's…off."

"Hey," Wyatt said suddenly, "is she wearing another necklace?"

"Huh?" Piper looked at her son, then back to her daughter. "Oh…you're right. I've never seen her wear that one before. Why didn't I notice this?"

"It's gotta be it, don't you think?" Chris asked then. "Dad?"

"It's not like this hasn't happened before," Leo commented. "And I'm not surprised if some demon didn't think that it was going to work again."

There was a quiet clinking noise as Piper tugged the necklace off of her daughter's neck. It was very subtle—a simple brass chain with a pendant made of a small piece of shaped black tourmaline. It glowed a vibrant shade of red once off of her daughter, which made Piper say, "Egh."

She moved to stand with a quiet grunt and headed over toward the small café table by the door, where she set the necklace down. She turned around and looked at Melinda.

"I didn't expect it—nor want it—to happen to any our kids…do you think she'll be fine now?"

Leo nodded, but neither Chris nor Wyatt said a word.

With a wave of her hand Piper unfroze Melinda, who sort of dipped forward, as if she had just been pushed into the chair suddenly. She brought a hand up to her face and brushed it over it slowly with a quiet, but long, groan. When she looked back up again she looked over at Wyatt, then to Chris, and then finally to Piper and Leo.

"What happened?" she asked. She sounded as confused as she looked.

Piper stepped towards her then and helped Melinda up and out of the chair. "Oh, nothing much…we were gonna ask you that question, actually…but I think it can wait until the morning. Along with some _other_ questions I have about what happened here tonight. All three of you look a little tired. And Wyatt? Will you heal Chris?"

Chris, who had had his body turned at just enough of an angle for Wyatt not to see his wound, moved to face his brother when his mother said that.

Wyatt made a slight face. "…Dude, what happened to you?"

"We'll talk about it in the morning," Piper said firmly. "Heal now, questions later."

Though the curiosity was clearly visible on Wyatt's face, he did just as his mother asked, and when the wound was fully healed, Chris stepped back without so much as a thank you. He was mad at Mel somewhat, was still mad at Wyatt, and for some reason, he was frustrated with his parents, too. He didn't want to talk to any of them, especially not right now.

Maybe in the morning it would be easier.


	10. Chapter 10

Author's Notes: Longest chapter to date thus far, but that's because it's the last one :D I wanted to thank everyone who took the time to both read and review this story, because it's by far one of my favorites, especially for Charmed. I'm not really sure why it isn't getting the reviews people think it should (to answer your wonderings, writerchic16 and charmed4eva112), but I suppose there's a reason for everything. Whatever the case, this chapter is dedicated to all of the faithful readers!!

Also, just to let you know, I'm not really sure if I'll go with it or not, but I'm fiddling with the idea of a sequel to this story, if only because I liked where things ended up, and I think that there could be a lot of expansion upon them. But we'll see! Bear with me, cause it might take a little bit longer. I usually don't post stories until I'm completely finished with them, which...may take some time. Still, it'll be worth it, I'm sure. :)

Oh, yes. And I don't own them, like always. (Just Landon!)

* * *

It was a wonder that Chris had managed to get any sleep that night at all. After going upstairs and immediately crawling into his bed, he had been rudely bothered by Wyatt, who kept on trying to get information on the fight between his two siblings. He eventually had to tell his brother to just shut up and go to sleep. It didn't leave things on very good terms between them, but Chris had been more worried with other things. He had more than enough things going on…worrying about fixing things between him and Wyatt would be something later. He was still unreasonably angry with him, anyways.

When Chris woke up that morning he saw that Wyatt wasn't in his bed. He figured that he must have been downstairs, but he wasn't terribly concerned with where his brother was. He got up and out of bed, went to the bathroom and then headed downstairs. He was just about to step into the dining room when he heard footsteps behind him. A glance back showed that it was Wyatt, who was carrying the _Book of Shadows_ in his hands. Chris didn't think much of that and just continued on his way to the kitchen, where he found his mom, dad and Mel.

"Looks like we're all up now," Piper said, sipping at her coffee. She turned to her daughter, who was sitting beside her. "You said it was a female demon, right?"

Melinda nodded. "I…don't remember what her name is, though. I don't think she ever said it. I'd know her face if I saw it, though."

Chris didn't really acknowledge anyone—they all seemed to be just fine with that—and headed over toward the refrigerator to get himself something to drink. His stomach was still feeling queasy from the night before, and he didn't want to make himself sick. With a new demon to go after, there would be no time for rest or relaxation, or even recuperation. Part of him was a little bitter about that, but majority of him knew that that was just the way life was.

Around this time Wyatt stepped into the kitchen with the I Book of Shadows /I in his arms. Although he carefully set it down on the table there was still a quiet thud that came along with it. The book had become awfully big over the years, so carrying it was getting difficult. Chris had some problems with it, and Mel did, too. Wyatt didn't have quite as many issues, since he was bigger and stronger than the both of them.

"Why don't we just do…some cross-referencing or something?" Chris suggested as he walked over to the table, resting a little against the chair his mom was sitting in. "What was her hair color, or her stature?"

"She was about my height." A thoughtful look took over the youngest one's face. "And…I think her hair was black. She was pale. Weird looking. Kind of a hooked nose."

Chris yawned. "All right, let's see." He waved his hand over the book, and it parted open upon the table. Pages started flipping on their own as he continued to move his hand, almost as if he were physically doing it. "Female demons with black hair, pale…" When the book flipped to a page and stopped, he looked over at his sister.

"That's not her," Mel said.

It was understandable, Chris thought. There were probably several demons in the _Book_ that were female and that had black hair. He used his powers again to flip to another page. This time they all looked at her, and almost at once Mel winced, looking downward and away from the _Book_.

"That's her," she said, sounding a little weirded out.

"Looks like her name's Lilandra," Wyatt said as he gazed over the two-page spread. "There's…God, there's a lot of stuff about her in here."

Piper, who had put on her glasses, was looking over the page as well. "It says she's had ties with Zankou…so she's been around for quite a while. And…that she's apparently gathered a few powers over the years…but if this hasn't been updated since we vanquished Zankou, then she must have been in hiding or something since then."

Leo propped his chin up with one of his arms, and he stroked it with his thumb. "It's possible that after he died, she went quiet…I know you, Phoebe and Paige haven't dealt with her before. I don't think I've ever even heard of her."

"She—" Mel paused, because right at the time she went to speak, so did Piper.

"No, go ahead, Mel. What were you gonna say?" Piper said.

"I…well, I don't really know what her plans are…but I know that they involve the three of us. She kept asking me what Chris was doing, and Wyatt, and she would…well, it's kind of hazy, but she would ask me to do things that would stir up trouble and stuff." Melinda made a face. "God, I can't believe some of the things I did." She looked up at Chris, then, and there was sincerity in her eyes that he hadn't seen even when they had the worst of fights. "I'm sorry about the things I said. I really am."

"It's okay," Chris said, but quietly. That sincerity made him feel a little uncomfortable, because now he felt bad about how he had reacted the night before. If it hadn't been for the way she had treated him the time before that, he probably wouldn't have gotten the guts to go talk to Landon, so he couldn't be entirely angry with her. "I know you didn't mean it," he said. "It wasn't you."

"Wyatt, too," Mel said, looking at her other brother.

Wyatt waved a hand dismissively. "Don't worry about it. I just thought it was you going through that…angry teenager phase that Chris and I went through. Happens to everyone."

Mel snorted, as did Piper and Leo.

"What?" Wyatt said.

"Nothing," Piper and Leo replied.

"It doesn't look like there's a vanquishing spell _or_ potion in here," Chris broke in. "She…hmm. We'll have to come up with them."

"Is there a summoning spell?" Piper asked. She started looking over the pages.

"No, doesn't say," Chris said.

Mel shifted in her chair. "I don't think we'll have to worry about that. She said that she was going to come back sometime soon…but she didn't tell me why."

Piper and Leo shared a look.

"Do you think she—"

"—If she wanted to, it wouldn't be too hard—"

"—Not with an amulet like that. She probably thinks—"

"—That their magic is going to be broken, like what happened with Prue, Phoebe and I…"

Chris looked at Wyatt. "You ever get tired of it when they do that?"

Wyatt snorted. "You know them…"

"And you should know not to make fun of your parents," Piper said. She shook her head, but she looked amused momentarily. "We think that she was trying to get you three to fight and argue and use your powers on each other…so that the connection between you would break. With that, she probably would try and go for the _Book_. She's not the first demon to try to do this, so I'm not sure if she thought it would be successful, or…what."

"But I think she must have forgotten the fact that technically, the _Book_ is still guarded by your aunts and your mom." Leo sipped some of his coffee. "I think a lot of demons forget that. It may have been passed down to you, but technically, until…well, they pass on, it's still under their care."

"Magic's so complicated sometimes," Mel said. She made a frustrated face.

Piper chuckled. "Oh, you say that now…just wait. It gets worse."

Chris snorted. "How reassuring."

"You know I mean it with the best intentions in mind." Piper moved to stand, and she rubbed her hands together. "But…let's come up with a battle plan. We've got a demon we need to vanquish, and with no spell or potion to go off of. That means…?"

"She's a Power of Three demon," Wyatt said suddenly. "We haven't fought one of those before…"

"So we've got a demon that needs to be vanquished by the Power of Three. Who wants to come up with the vanquishing spell?"

"I'll do it," Chris replied, raising his hand some.

"Just in case she doesn't come sooner rather than later, I'll come up with a summoning spell," Mel said.

"Should I make a potion?" Wyatt asked.

"It probably won't be necessary," Piper said. "Your active powers should be more than enough to keep her occupied. Just for safety measures, everyone needs to stay home today. No going anywhere."

"You think she'll attack today?" Leo asked.

"You know how demons are," Piper said, looking at her husband. "They're greedy to the core. She'll be here sooner than we think."

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Everything was going according to plan. Charming that amulet with a will-bending spell was possibly the smartest idea that Lilandra had come up with since she had hatched the plan to steal the Charmed Ones' powers and the _Book of Shadows_. With it, she had been able to talk Mel into doing whatever she wanted, and it was that which was assuredly going to undo their sibling connection and break the power over the _Book_. With both their powers and the _Book_ in her possession, she would easily be able to rise to the position of the next Source, with or without blood ties to him. Nobody would be able to refute her power…she would be the new queen.

It had only taken two decades and then some to get the idea into full effect, but it was better late than never. She had more than enough time to spare.

Perhaps her own cockiness was going to be her undoing. She didn't think so, however. She had power under her control that only one other person had ever used in going against the Charmed Ones. But unlike the original Source, she wasn't sending minions to do her job for her. No, she was doing it herself. It was always better, and much more reliable.

Tonight would be the night. She would go to the Charmed Ones' manor, take the _Book_ in its weakened state, steal their powers, and then kill them all one by one. It almost seemed anticlimactic in a way…but she supposed that would be the case, given that she had been using someone on the inside. They didn't even know they were being poisoned and destroyed from the inside out.

That thought made her smirk.

It would be under the cover of darkness that she would go. But could she wait that long?

She had waited for years, she told herself. A couple hours seemed like mere seconds in comparison.

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"God, I'm getting tired of waiting…"

"You know, Mel, you're not the only one. Don't you have homework you could do?" Chris glanced over at his sister then, watching her shift around in the armchair.

She made a face. "You think I'm gonna do homework when a demon could attack at any minute?"

"It'd be a lot better than sitting here, watching TV, waiting for her to pop in."

"It's just because mom said we had to stay here," Wyatt broke in. He was sitting on the other end of the couch, the remote in his hand as he aimlessly flipped through channels. "But I'm…getting kind of sick of it. I wish we could just scry for her and get her in her lair, or whatever."

"Mom must have a reason for wanting us to do it here," Chris said, moving off of the couch. He stretched. "I just wish she'd tell us."

"You know mom and dad. They love letting us learn lessons on our own." Wyatt shrugged. "Damn it. There is_nothing_ good on TV. I'm gonna go make myself a sandwich." Tossing the remote at his sister, he then got up and off of the couch, heading toward the kitchen.

Chris rubbed his hands over his eyes, then turned to look at his sister. "I'm gonna head up to my room and grab a…book, or something. I can't sit here and just watch TV for hours until she shows up."

When Mel gave a noncommittal sort of shrug Chris just stepped out of the parlor and went up the stairs toward his room. Beside his bed there was a short little bookshelf that he kept all of his books on, as well as a few other things, like his magazines or his textbooks, or readings for class. Despite having told Mel to do her homework in a way, he knew that he wasn't going to do his. Instead he grabbed the book that he had been reading off and on for about a month and a half. He hadn't even made it a quarter of the way through the book and had forgotten majority of it. Reading a little more and getting lost seemed like a good way to pass the time.

Especially since he didn't want to think about all the other crap that was running around in his head. Chris furrowed his brow and shook his head. It was going to take him a hell of a long time to get over that…

He had just stepped out of his room when he heard the sounds of someone moving around in the attic above him. At first he thought that it was maybe his mom or his dad, but a glance down the hall showed him that they were in their room, his dad folding clothes and his mom making the bed. Wyatt and Melinda were downstairs…unless Wyatt had orbed up to the attic to grab something. But he wasn't sure why he would do that.

Something was suspicious. There was only one other option as to who it was, because he sincerely doubted that it was one of his cousins having come to get a spell. When they did that, they usually brought the _Book_ down into the ground floor of the manor for safety. No, whoever it was looking at it probably didn't want to be detected.

He knew that he should have told someone what was going on, but Chris wanted to just check and make sure that his suspicions were right. After tossing his book back into his room toward his bed, he headed slowly up the stairs that led to the attic, trying not to make too much noise. The door to the attic was almost completely closed, which gave him a chance to peek inside through the crack. What he saw, oddly enough, both surprised and didn't surprise him.

Pushing the door open, Chris barged into the attic with full force, not removing his eyes from the short, pale, and darkly clothed individual who tried to touch the I Book /I . Its shield went up instantly and it bounced right off of its pedestal, cascading across the floor.

"Damn it!" Lilandra cursed. She looked to Chris, eyes lit with surprise. "What—"

Before she was able to respond, Chris pointed at Lilandra and then toward the large, open area to the right of the_Book_'s pedestal. She went flying through the air and landed on the attic floor with a heavy thud, one that almost would have caused him to wince.

He ran over to the _Book_ and picked it up while she was down, holding it in his arms. "Wyatt! Get Mel!" he shouted. At the sight of Lilandra stirring on the ground not too far away he pointed at the box where they kept their crystals, saying, "Crystals! Circle!"

Before she was able to get up completely, four crystals surrounded her and formed a cage that trapped her in place. "WYATT!"

"You weren't supposed to have your powers," Lilandra said upon standing up. She attempted to shimmer out of the crystal cage but their resonating energy fields stopped her and gave her a shock. She cried out in surprise and looked around her. "This wasn't supposed to _happen_."

"Yeah, well, believe it. You stupid—"

Chris was cut off by the sudden appearance of his brother and sister orbing in beside him. Wyatt and Mel looked to Chris, who pointed to the crystal cage.

"That's her!" Mel exclaimed.

"I don't know how long this'll keep her," Chris said. He waved his hand over the _Book_, and watched as it disappeared from his hands. He had orbed it to his mother, knowing it would be safe with her.

"Do you have the spell?" Wyatt asked.

Chris nodded. "It's in my—pocket—" He pulled the crumpled up piece of paper and unfolded it, glancing back over at Lilandra once more. "I made sure to make it hurt," he said, eying his sister momentarily. "For all the pain she put you through."

"You won't kill me!" Lilandra shouted. She formed a fireball in her hand and shot it at one of the crystals on the floor, which happened to knock it to the side just enough to break the cage. She immediately attempted to shimmer away, but was stopped by Wyatt, who stuck his hand out. She was stuck in mid-shimmer.

"Mel, freeze her!" Wyatt shouted.

Without hesitation Mel did exactly what her brother said, flicking her hands at Lilandra. Even though she was a higher-level demon it still affected her just long enough for Wyatt to use his power to bring her fully back to form.

As her figure began to shift and distort due to the effect wearing off, Chris clasped his brother's hand, and Wyatt did the same with his sister's. "Just read it from the paper," Chris said.

In unison, Wyatt, Chris and Mel all chanted: "_Through us three, cast the spell, bring the death of evil and hell…_"

Lilandra had completely fought off Mel's freeze, but now she was planted in place by the spell effect that was now taking place. At the bottom, red and black flames suddenly surrounded her. She looked down at them, then quickly back up to the three Halliwell children.

"You can't do this!" she exclaimed shrilly. "I didn't kill your stupid charge just to be—"

But the three Charmed Ones continued chanting, their voices, will and power remaining focused: "_May she suffer, until she cries, her tears will run, and then she dies._"

Tears as black as night and as thick as oil began running down Lilandra's cheeks. She stuck her hands out in front of her and cried out in agony, screaming, "_Nooo_! I won't be killed, I—_NOOOO_!!!"

But before she could finish speaking, the brilliantly colored flames engulfed more and more of her body as the tears poured from her eyes. Her body distorted its shape again once more before she threw her hands up in the air and her body imploded with a resounding boom. There was a large black scorch mark on the wooden floor where she had been, and a wave of wind from the blast whisked all of their hair back.

What she had said hadn't hit Chris until after she had been vanquished. I She /I had been the one who had killed Sophie. A strange feeling that wrenched his gut made him almost hunch over. Although he had killed her killer, it didn't make it feel any better. Vengeance wasn't a healthy feeling, and Chris didn't want it. But at least now…now he knew who had done it.

And it was one thing that he could consider solved.

"We did it," Mel said, sounding somewhat surprised, but more relieved than anything. She looked at her brothers. "We did it."

"Our first Power of Three demon vanquished," Wyatt said. He had a grin on his face.

"Congrats, guys," Chris said, and with a sigh.

They both turned to him, and Wyatt, who was still clasping his hand, let go and wrapped his arm around his brother's shoulders to bring him closer. "…Sorry about your charge, Chris."

"Yeah," Mel agreed gently. "…but at least we got the bitch."

Despite it all, Chris couldn't help but laugh at that.

He smiled a little. "You're right. At least we got her."

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With Lilandra vanquished and thoughts of what had happened to Sophie finally out of his mind (at least for the time being--he wasn't sure he would ever be fully over it), Chris had been able to think more about other things. But unfortunately, what he thought about wasn't exactly the most positive. It was during this time that he realized that he had basically ditched Landon at the club without having intended to at all. There really was no easy way of lying to him about it—what he had done wouldn't make any sense to the other even if he tried to make it. Plus, he couldn't give up his family's secret—and their protection—just because he had messed up on a date. If his aunts had done that every time one of their romances failed, then there was no way that they would be where they were at that moment.

Still, it had taken a lot of courage to call Landon up. He had to think of a probable reason, something that wouldn't seem outlandish, complicated, or just overall, stupid. The only person that he would have been able to talk about it with would have been Wyatt. And even though his brother had told him that he was fine with knowing, it was an entirely different thing to actually act on that knowledge and use him as a resource. Maybe someday Chris would be able to do that, but that day wasn't I today /I .

Thanks to some miracle, Chris had been able to get Landon to meet him at a coffee house not too far away from the manor so that they could talk. Landon had sounded somewhat short on the phone, for which Chris couldn't blame him. This must have been the feeling that his aunts—and at times, his mom—had felt when dealing with these kinds of things.

He didn't like the feeling very much…

Feeling about twice as nervous as he had the time that they met at his mother's club, Chris sat outside at one of the small café tables, some water in front of him. He, however, was too jittery to even try drinking it. It wouldn't do to spill some on himself and make a mess. That would have been embarrassing as hell.

About five minutes had passed, and Chris looked down at his watch. Landon was late.

Or no, he wasn't. Out of the corner of his eye he noticed a familiar figure heading his way. It was Landon, but he was wearing sunglasses, which hid his eyes. He took them off, however, upon approaching the table.

Chris glanced up at him, a small forming on his face. "Hey…"

"Hey," Landon said. "Seat taken?"

"No, no, it's not." Chris snorted. "Sit, please. And have some of that coffee. I, uh, got it for you."

Landon did so and set his glasses on the top of the table near the little container that held all of the sugars. He looked at Chris, raising an eyebrow. "Now, you're…not gonna run out on me here after just a few minutes, right?"

That hurt. But, Chris thought to himself, he deserved it. "No," he said, and with assurance. "No, that won't happen this time. I…can't apologize enough for it happening the last time."

"I have to admit, only part of me wanted to come today, because I thought you blew me off." Landon's fingertips carefully tapped against his coffee container. "But that part was the one that was curious as to why, so…why?"

"I…" Chris began.

What he wanted to say was the truth. Even though he knew beyond all shadow of a doubt that Landon would think him crazy, the truth was what he felt like getting out. But there was more to it than that, and the more Chris had to think about it—which was a lot, in just two days—the more he realized there were completely normal, non-magical problems with him, as well.

"I…almost felt unprepared," he finally admitted.

Landon gave him a funny look. "What does_ that_ mean?"

"It means…that I don't think I was ready to completely open up then. I'm…not really a party-goer. I'm more of a homebody. I like going out to movies or to dinner, but I just…clubs, I don't go to them much. I felt out of my element, uncomfortable. And I didn't really think about what I did, so I just did it. Acted on impulse."

"It wasn't so bad the last time you did it," Landon said, and with a small smirk on his face.

"That wasn't really me, either," Chris admitted. "But the one you see before you…basic, boring Chris—that's who I am. That's who I feel like being. Easy-going—okay, maybe a little high-strung at times—but generally quiet, focused."

"Not the kind of guy who parties and drinks?"

"Not…really."

"Oh."

Chris tried not to let that gut-wrenching feeling come back. "Yeah."

Landon didn't say anything for a minute. He remained quite quiet, sipping at his coffee once, and then twice. Finally, he looked at Chris, raised an eyebrow, and snorted. "Dude…why didn't you just say that in the first place?"

A confused look overtook Chris' face. "Eh?"

"You should have just told me in the first place. I don't…really _know_ you well enough to know what you like, what you don't like. You just agreed to the club so I figured it was a mutual thing. If you didn't wanna go, you could have just told me. We could have gone somewhere else."

There was no chastising sound in Landon's tone, Chris noted. If anything, his tone seemed mostly surprised. That was a strange feeling. Chris scooted closer to the table then, resting his bare forearms upon it. "I didn't think."

"Eh, we're men." Landon laughed. "That happens sometimes. But seriously…next time? Just tell me. If you wanna meet at a café or something, that's fine by me. I don't always want to go out to clubs. It's just…kind of what I know about you, since it's where I first met you."

Chris turned a mild shade of red, which he hoped wasn't too noticeable. "I'll definitely be more upfront about these kinds of things the next time."

"Yeah, yeah…don't over think it." Landon reached across the table and patted Chris' hand with a grin. He, too, moved in on the café table. Their faces were somewhat closer together now. "It's dating. It's not rocket science."

Landon was right, Chris thought. It _wasn't_ rocket science. He didn't have to over think it. He just had to enjoy it. Just had to be comfortable. And really, that wasn't too hard to do. If the inhibition spell had taught him one thing, it was that the desire and capability was there. He couldn't deny it.

And because of that, he was able to move in closer, closing the distance between them until their lips met in a kiss. It wasn't the best kiss, but when he pulled back, Landon didn't seem to be frowning. In fact, he was grinning faintly.

It looked like things would be fine, after all.


End file.
